The Never-Ending Cycle of Pain
by takoyakilover4ever
Summary: A prodigy born into the main family, treated like a god. Born into the clan that is known famously for their ability to hear one's frequency of Chakra. A descendent of the head of the Haruno clan. This clan rivaled the Uchiha clan in terms of power. That's all in the past though. Sakura Haruno now has one goal; find out the truth. Who and what caused the Haruno Loss.
1. Chapter 1

_**The never-ending cycle of pain Chapter 1**_

 _Have you ever heard of the Haruno downfall?_

 _Everyone has heard of the Uchiha Incident._

 _However, does everyone know of the Haruno downfall?_

 _Only Shinobi's that have worked for more that four years have knowledge over the bloodbath, which reigned down upon the Haruno's._

 _Still, who were the Haruno's? Are they really that important?_

 _Yes._

 _They were one of the very powerful clans that contained highly skilled shinobi, despite being quite small. Each and every Haruno inherits a certain ability, making them quite special._

 _So, what forced their clan into an almost extinct group?_

 _Who knew just one small mistake during a war could end destroy everything they have?_

 _Well… It isn't too rare is it? A leader makes a mistake, which results the death of thousands. It's just another one of those._

 _Though, soon after, a certain group made sure to remove any primary resources regarding the Haruno Clan._

 _However, that didn't stop rumors from circulating around the village._

 _Still, it seems that certain group forgot about the girl who was left behind in that mess._

* * *

 _Sakura Haruno._

 _A prodigy born into the main family, treated like a god._

 _Born into the clan that is known famously for their ability to hear one's frequency of Chakra._

 _Was known in her clan to have one of the best inheritances of their ability._

 _A descendent of the head of the Haruno clan, which rivals the Uchiha clan in terms of power._

 _That isn't all though. Oh no, not that she was just a born genius. This person was looked at like a god, but also as a demon._

 _Why?_

 _If only you could see what is locked up inside of her small 'fragile' body._

 _What does that usually result in?_

 _Confinement and isolation._

* * *

' _I'll never forget that day. The day when everything changed for me. The stench of blood. I can still remember each and every corpse on that day. The ringing in my ears, I can still hear it.'_

* * *

"I'm leaving now…" A monotone voice booms throughout the empty corridor. Green eyes trail over the floor, while the person slips their shoes on and exits the building without a word. It did not feel lonely but rather, 'peaceful'. Their long cherry blossom colored hair flutters in the wind as they walk calmly towards the academy.

'I guess I'm a bit early…' The girl thinks to herself as they walk into her classroom. Stepping into the room, a voice booms out towards the girl as they make contact, "Hn… Sakura huh?"

Sharp black eyes pierce into the emerald eyes of the girl named Sakura. Her ears ring faintly from hearing the Chakra inside of him.

"Sasuke…" She mumbles under her breath, only loud enough for herself to hear.

The Uchiha reminiscence about the first day she suddenly appeared, causing a massive stir in the class. She easily beat him in training, tests and in every way possible. Of course, as he was the top student until she arrived, he was slightly jealous. However, since he is in fact very hardheaded and stubborn, he would never admit it. After their brief eye contact, Sakura breaks it by closing her eyes and walking towards a seat, which was directly opposite to his location.

Sensing a large group of people with low frequencies of Chakra, Sakura groans in annoyance and closes her eyes. Her classmates begin to walk in, having a conversation, and sit themselves down. After a few minutes, Sakura opens her green eyes again and trails them to look at Sasuke.

Ino, who coincidently, spots this and goes up to Sakura, "Hm? You interested in Sasuke? I always knew you had a thing for him. Too bad he's not yours." Sakura sighs and ignores the comment made by the Yamanaka and moves her head to look at the wall. "Oh come on Sakura! Don't try to hide your love Sasuke." Ino Ino carries on, Sakura gives her a cold glare which makes her stop and walk away. As Iruka walks in, Sakura looks at the figure he is carrying behind him.

'Oh… It's just Naruto.' Sakura thinks plainly in her head, gazing at the tied up Naruto. As he begins to lecture Naruto, the cherry coloured girl lays her head against the palm of her hand. She begins to go off into wonderland until,"We will have a re-test on the transformation jutsu! Even those who already passed will take it!" Iruka shouts at the entire class, earning whines and complaints. The side of Sakura's eye twitches in annoyance as she curses Naruto in her mind, 'how annoying.'Lining up one by one, the students stand in front of their classroom. Sakura, who stands on the right-most side, goes first.

"…" Before Iruka says anything, Sakura quickly transforms into a perfect duplication of her teacher."Uhm… Good Sakura!" Iruka compliments her. She says nothing, quickly walking back to her seat. 'I thought the academy would be more… interesting. Instead it's equally boring here like when I'm at home.' Sakura sits on her chair and observes her other classmates.

"Next, Sasuke Uchiha!" Iruka says, reading off of his small black clipboard. "Yes." Sasuke walks up to his teacher, also quickly transforming.

"Oh Okay…" Iruka says awkwardly. Sasuke quickly transforms back into his normal self, with his hands stuffed into his pocket.

'Hmph… Trying to look cool…' Sakura leans against her arm once again.

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto!"

As he uses the Jutsu 'Sexy no Jutsu', no one notices a certain girl disappear from their classroom.

* * *

'Everyone is just a bunch of idiots…' Sakura walks home, returning to her enormous mansion filled with emptiness.

"I'm home…" Sakura whispers to no one in particular. Plopping herself down onto the bed, Sakura falls into a slumber.

* * *

Sakura is suddenly wakened to a large ringing in her ears. She covers her ears and looks outside of her window, "What the heck is that?"

'This murderous intent… but that's not all; chakra is spreading out over there?' Sakura looks outside and tries to figure out what is currently happening, 'Could it be clones?' Unknown to her, a fight between Naruto and Mizuki was breaking down.

After a while, the rapid changes in frequencies die down. Sakura sighs and lies back down onto her bed. 'I bet it was nothing anyways.'

* * *

 _Next day…_

Sakura enters the classroom, once again, to see that Naruto gapping at her with flushed cheeks. Observing her class, she spots majority of the girl classmates quarreling over who gets to sit next to Sasuke. She rolls her eyes and groans and the amount of noise.

* * *

 _In another area…_

"Is that this years second highest rookie, Sasuke Uchiha?" One Jonin queries. A crowd of Jonin's observe the ball displaying a live video feed of the classroom.

"Yes." The Hokage replies with his hands folded.

"The sole survivor of the Uchiha Clan?"

"Yes."

The ball begins to move towards the corner of the room, showing Sakura leaning against the wall with plain boredom painted on her face. Some Jonin's flinch at the image, "Isn't she from the extinct Haruno Clan? Sakura Haruno?"

"…" The Hokage stays silent and nods his head slowly, causing the crowd to mummer.

"To think she would actually join the academy…" One says in surprise.

"Didn't she score the highest in the academy overall?" Another one whispers

A certain Jonin with spikey silver hair and dark grey eyes thinks in his head, 'hmm… Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.'

* * *

 _Back to the classroom…_

Due to the sudden sheer silence, Sakura decided to actually look in their direction and see what is happening. She widens her eyes to see Naruto and Sasuke… kissing. Everyone begins to tell Naruto off, causing him to cower in fear. Sakura looks away, covering her face. Surprisingly, her cheeks go red as she tries to stifle laughter. She places her fist next to her mouth and attempts to hold in her smile. Sasuke, looking in her direction, spots Sakura smiling faintly. He internally keeps that image in mind and just sighs deeply. As everyone sits down, Sakura notices that only seat open is the one between Sasuke and Naruto. She groans on the inside and sits down there. Iruka begins to explain the principles of a team and being led by a Jonin.

'Hmph… squad of three? I hope I don't get paired up with Sasuke; he will just annoy me by trying to show off or be 'cool'.' Sakura thinks with deep annoyance. As Iruka continues to announce the groups, Sakura begins to close her eyes and focus on each person's frequency of chakra. She memorizes each and every pattern in the classroom, however she questions Naruto's pattern, It's so… irregular. Zoning back in, Sakura sighs and hopes she isn't paired up with him.

"Now then, next is group seven." Iruka says, "Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke." As Naruto sulks, Sakura grits her teeth in frustration, 'The two people I hoped to not involve myself with…!'. Sakura bites the bottom of her lip before calming herself down.

Iruka begins to read out the names for Group 8, 9, 10, etc.

"Iruka-sensei! Why does an outstanding Shinobi like me have to be on the same team as that guy over there?!" Naruto protests, pointing his index finger at Sasuke.

Iruka sighs, "Sasuke's grades were the second best, right behind Sakura, out of all 27 graduates and yours were dead last. Do you understand? We have to do this to balance the teams, right?"

"Hn, just don't get in the way Dead Last." Sasuke says while still looking forward. He wouldn't admit it, but he was annoyed that he only got second highest.

"What did you call me?!" Naruto fires back.

* * *

Sitting down on a bench, Sakura bites into her riceball and begins to each her lunch. She looks across the pathway to see 'Sasuke' looking directly at her.'… Naruto that idiot.' Sakura thinks in her mind, ' I know it's you transformed as Sasuke; your frequencies are way different compared to his'.'Sasuke' walks up to Sakura, complimenting her forehead.

'Is this what they call flirting?' Sakura thinks as she proceeds to eat her lunch. "What do you think of Naruto?" 'Sasuke' asks with a tint of nervousness in his voice. Sakura swallows her food and sighs and thinks, 'I should probably just play along since I feel kind of bad for him.'

"He doesn't understand anything…" Sakura says, looking into his eyes. As they continue to make eye contact, 'Sasuke' blushes and leans in closer.

He clutches his stomach and stands up. 'Sasuke' starts to mumble something along the lines of toilet and stomach.

* * *

 _A few moments later…_

A small tingle in her ears causes Sakura to look up, but still chewing on her food. Here comes the real Sasuke… Maybe I should play around with his head since I'm bored…' Sakura thinks mischievously."Your back Sasuke?" Sakura says with a plain face. "…? What do you mean I'm back?" Sasuke tilts his head to the side, "Where's Naruto?" Giggling on the inside, Sakura smirks a bit, "Hmmm… Maybe I'll tell you, maybe I won't."

Sasuke glares at her, making Sakura return the favor.

After a while, Sasuke decides to break the silence, "You're annoying…"

"Heh," Sakura scoffs and raises her head a bit while crossing her arms, "So are you, you attention seeking brat."

Sasuke growls at her, making her smirk slightly.

'At least that was interesting and not boring in a way.' Sakura begins to walk towards the academy once again.

"…I'm heading back to the academy," Sakura waves her hand at him, "See you…"

* * *

"Why is our team 7 Sensei so damn late?!" Naruto screams. Placing a blackboard duster in between the door and wall, Naruto grins proudly at his prank."That's what you get for being late!" Naruto jumps off of the stool and onto the floor.

'Hm… Look's interesting to watch…' Sakura gets up and says to Naruto, "If he asks, I'm not part of it."

"Like a Jonin would fall for such a stupid booby trap." Sasuke plainly explains. As Sasuke says that, their supposed Sensei walks in and falls for the trap.

The teacher places his finger and thumb on his chin and says with a closed eye smile, "How can I say this? My first impression is… I don't like you guys."

* * *

"Well, lets begin by introducing yourselves." Their Sensei says.

"What do you want to know?" Naruto asks.

"How about you likes, dislikes… Your dream for the future and things like that…" He trails off.

"Hey Hey, why don't you introduce yourself first?!" Naruto grumbles.

"At least introduce your name…" Sakura mumbles while staring plainly at her supposed Sensei.

"Oh me? My name is Hatake Kakashi… I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes…" Kakashi continues, "Dreams for the future hmm… and I have lots of hobbies…"

"So all he told us is his name?" Sakura tilts her head to the side.

"Now it's your turn, let's start on the right." Kakshi directs his speech to Naruto.

"Alright! My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What I like is Cup Ramen," Naruto holds his head protector proudly, "What I like even more is when Iruka Sensei pays for my Ramen. What I dislike is waiting 3 minutes for the ramen to cook…"

'Ramen, ramen, ramen… Is that all he thinks about?' Sakura thinks in her mind.

"And my dream…" Naruto grins widely and stands up, "Is to surpass the Hokage and then have people acknowledge my existence."

"My hobbies… Pranks, I guess?" Naruto sits back down.

"Next." Kakashi rubs his head.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike and I don't really like anything, and I can't really call it a dream," Sasuke intertwines his finger with his own, "But I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and… to kill a certain man."

'The attention seeking brat strikes again.' Sakura makes a low sound of annoyance and disgust.

"And lastly, the girl." Kakashi folds his arms.

"Haruno Sakura. I like… some stuff?" Sakura scratches the back of her head, trying to think of something and turns to Sasuke while smirking, "I hate attention seeking brats."

Sasuke glares at her for a brief second and looks away.

"My dream? Find out who caused the Haruno Downfall probably and prove to this village that my clan is the ultimate and best clan…" Sakura places her hands on her lap and gives her usual monotone face, "Hobbies are probably trying to not be bored maybe?" Sasuke looks at her with shocked eyes, 'Haruno downfall…? I've heard of that somewhere before…'

'Haruno Sakura hm...?' Kakashi ponders, 'she's going to be an interesting student.'

Sakura begins to zone out once again, dreaming in her wonderland. She picks up Kakashi saying something about a test, failing, sent back, skip breakfast, paper has information. Sakura takes the paper and reads it plainly with bored eyes, "Is this it?"

"Yeah." Kakashi replies.

"Kay, I'm going home." Sakura stuffs the paper into her pocket and walks home slowly.

* * *

 _Next day…_

"Hey guys! Good morning!" Kakashi waves happily at them.

"YOU'RE LATE" Naruto, Sasuke and even Sakura (well she angrily groaned) scream.

* * *

"Okay, it's set for noon," Kakashi presses an alarm, "I have two bells; your task is to take these from me before times up. Those who don't have a bell by noon… get's no lunch. I'll not only tie you to one of those stumps, but I'll also eat right in front of you."

"You only have to take one bell. There are two, so one of you will definitely be tied to the stump and the person who doesn't take a bell fails. So at least one of you will be sent to the academy." Kakashi scares the genin's. Sakura notices Naruto and Sasuke getting slightly scared, 'Hm… Scared? Your frequencies are slowly getting higher…'. Kakashi begins to talk more and more, making Sakura slightly bored. She zones out and begins to notice how the sky is blue.

Suddenly their Sensei is screaming, "BEGIN", making Sakura zone back in. She pauses for a second before running to a bush and hiding there.

'It's nice a cool in this area… I feel like taking a nap…' Sakura grins, however her stomach rumbles making her slightly annoyed, 'I'm so damn hungry though so I'll quickly get a bell and eat.'

"Come here and fight me!" Naruto stands in the plain open, making Sakura give him a look of pity.

Kakashi takes out his book and begins to read it. Naruto continues to attack Kakashi, however he dodges each attack perfectly without taking his eyes off of his book. After giving him a thousand years of pain, Naruto begins to use weapons against him.

'I'm impressed Kakashi…' Sakura thinks, 'should I make a move soon? Nah… This place is nice to lie down in…'. The green eyed girl continues to observe Sasuke's attempt to attack Kakashi, while Naruto get's caught in traps. Feeling a small tingle in her ears, she lets out a large sigh, "Kakashi sensei, if you are going to sneak up on me, at least do it properly."

"Impressive Sakura," Kakashi makes eye contact with her cold green eyes, "I have a question, are you not scared of my test?"

"I've been through worse Sensei, this is pretty much nothing compared to that night…" Sakura places a fake smile on her face, "I'm sure you know what I'm talking about."

"…I know you are powerful Sakura. So why won't you use your power now?" Kakashi gives Sakura a serious look, he even out his book away.

"Well…" Sakura starts while closing her eyes, making Kakashi gulp, "I'm hungry and I can't be bothered right now." Kakashi stares at her with a box face," Can't be bothered? You know I can send you back to the academy right?". Sakura shakes her head and says with a monotone voice, "I've been playing with you since the beginning. I know your lying; I can hear it in your voice."

"To be able to hear chakra frequencies… What a fearsome ability…" Kakashi mumbles.

"Yeah. You should know, your chakra frequency can change even with the smallest emotion." Sakura puts up a peace sign with her hand. Before Kakashi can attack Sakura, she stops him by coughing, "By the way, the bells that we need to get. I wasn't really listening to you during your explanation but do they look like this?". Sakura dangles the bell, which Kakashi was holding, in his face.

"…!" Kakashi looks at his pocket and notices one missing, "When did you…?"

"Hmm…" Sakura places her index finger on her chin, "This isn't too fun… Here, I'll give the bell back to you and pretend that I never got it, okay?". She takes Kakashi's hand and places the bell in his palm. Sakura walks away, pretending that she never saw Kakashi. 'I knew it… She really is strong…' Kakashi says, pulling on his mask.

* * *

Walking for about a minute, Sakura spots a head on the floor. She walks up to it and places her hand over her mouth from wanting to laugh. "…Nice getting caught in Kakashi's trap Sasuke…" Sakura says beneath her hand. Sasuke is currently seething underneath the ground he is stuck in. "Shut up…" Sasuke spits at her, struggling to get out.

'Should I play with his head as well?' Sakura ponders in her mind. She puts her fist on her palm, deciding that she would play with Sasuke's mind. "It's okay Sasuke; you can always try next time." Sakura mischievously says, causing Sasuke to grit his teeth and force his way out of the ground. He glares sharply at Sakura, "There's a man only I can kill. I'm an avenger; I have to become stronger than him; I can't just stay here and do nothing."

'Hm… Maybe I went to far.' Sakura narrows her eyes. Hearing the ring of the alarm, Sasuke stuffs his hands in his pockets, "Tch… Wasted too much time."

 _10 minutes later…_

"You guys look really hungry, and by the way something about training," Kakashi starts off, "Well, there's no need for you guys to go back to the academy". Sasuke and Naruto let a sigh of relief slip under their breath. Cheering, Naruto excitedly moves his legs under the ropes he's tied against."Then all three of us…?!" Naruto shouts with excitement. "Yep, all three of you should quit as Shinobi!" Kakashi tells the young genin's.

'Looks like Sasuke and Naruto are scared once again.' Sakura covers one of her ears after hearing a small tingle.

"Even you Sakura!" Kakashi directs his speech to the green-eyed girl, making her glare at Kakashi.

"Are you guys underestimating Ninja's? Huh? Why do you think you were divided into teams and doing this training?" Kakashi asks the 3 with a harsh tone.

"What do you mean Sensei?" Sakura throws a serious look at her teacher, making Naruto and Sasuke's eyes to widen being able to take it anymore, Sasuke attacks Kakashi directly. However his actions fail, and Sasuke gets pinned to the ground with Kakashi sitting on him.

"You guys aren't understanding the answer to this test. The answers that will help you pass the test." Kakashi eyes hold a slight glare in them.

"Ah! Damn it! What's the answer already?!" Naruto screams in frustration.

"It's teamwork…" Kakashi says, slowly looking at Sakura to glare at her. The girl looks away and makes a small groan of annoyance.

"So there are two bell to make us fight among ourselves?" Sakura spits out.

"Yes. The purpose of this test is to see whether you can forget about your personal interests and successfully work along side each other, under these kind of circumstances." Kakashi looks into Naruto's eyes.

"Naruto! You were just running around by yourself!"

"Sasuke! You assumed the others would get in your way and tried to do everything by yourself!"

"And Sakura!" Kakashi narrows his eyes at the girl, "Do you think this is a game?! You're always fooling around, despite being strong."

"Individual play that can disrupt teamwork could put your teammates in danger and even get yourself killed." Kakashi gets off of Sasuke and walks towards a stone with numerous of names carved into it.

"Look at this. The numerous names carved on this stone. These are ninja's who are recognized as heroes of this village." Kakashi looks at Sakura, noticing her not looking straight into the stone. Sakura shifts around on her spot and looks in a direction where only tree's are visible.

"Hey!" Naruto outbursts, "I've decided to get my name carved on that stone too! That's what I'll become! A hero!". Pissed off from Naruto's obliviousness, Sakura stops Naruto's speech, "Naruto! Those aren't normal heroes…"

"Hm?" Naruto tilts his head in confusion, "What kind of heroes were they?"

"…" Unable to carry on, Sakura closes her eyes. Kakashi decided to answer Naruto's question, in replacement of, "They are all heroes who died while on duty". Hearing that, Naruto's smile immediately drops and an eerie silence is created through the group. Sakura grits her teeth, wanting to walk away from that area.

"This is a memorial… My best friends name is also carved in here…" Kakashi trails off. "I'll give you one more chance. But after lunch, I'll make it even tougher to get the bells. Those who still wish to challenge can eat lunch, but don't give any to Naruto. It's punishment for trying to eat by yourself. If anyone gives him food, they will fail immediately." Kakashi, straight after, disappears with a puff of smoke.

"Heh fine! I don't need any food!" Naruto's stomach begins to grumble, contradicting his statement.

 _Lunch Time…_

In the exact same moment, Sakura and Sasuke both offer food to Naruto, "Here…"

"Wait! Kakashi just said!" Naruto stops them both.

"It's okay Naruto, I can't hear or sense him anywhere near here so…" Sakura says, trying to cover a small blush of embarrassment on her cheeks.

"Without food, you will just be in the way and that will hurt the team…" Sasuke tries to justify his actions.

"Hehe…" Naruto blushes and says with a big grin on his face, "Thanks."

A large explosion is seen in front of the three, and in the mist was Kakashi screaming, "You guys…!"

Sakura prepares to smash Kakashi in the face, before he says, "Pass!"

The three look at him with questionable faces and stay silent.

Widening her eyes, she lowers her fist and asks Kakashi, "…? Why?"

"A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules and codes of the Ninja world are called trash… But, you know what?" Kakashi looks up, "Those who don't take care of their comrades… are lower than trash."

Sakura looks straight into the eyes of Kakashi, wondering, 'Did he quote that from somewhere or someone? I felt sadness in his voice…'

Naruto looks at Kakashi with admiration in his eyes.

Sticking a thumb up to the three, Kakashi says with happiness, "That ends training. All of you pass! Starting tomorrow, team 7 will begin it's duties!"

 _ **End of Chapter 1**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**The never-ending cycle of pain Chapter 2**_

'How did I get myself into this huge mess…?' Sakura wonders, walking along side of Tazuna from the Land of Waves.

'Oh right… Naruto was complaining how we have such easy jobs and the Hokage let us escort this guy to the Land of Waves.' Sakura let's out another sigh. As they walk, Kakashi begins to explain the Hokage and the Kage's in the world of Shinobi. Sakura notices the chakra frequencies going higher, causing her to stop and look at the single puddle on the floor. She narrows her eyes at it and eyes Kakashi, signaling him that something is there. Walking past the puddle, two shadows emerge from the puddle and supposedly 'kill' Kakashi. Naruto looks at the two figures in fear. Sakura runs over Tazuna with a calm composure and stands still. She watches as Sasuke deflects their weapons and steps on them. The two attackers make their way to Tazuna and try to attack them. Sucking in air, Sakura clenches her hand holding a kunai and twirls it in her hand. She stands in a defensive position; ready to protect their client. As the ninja's approach Tazuna and Sakura, Sasuke stands in their way and tries to block their attacks. Kakashi then appears, defeating the two Ninja's effortlessly. In the corner of Kakashi's eye, he spots wind pick up very slightly around Sakura for a brief seconds. The others do not notice, but he makes a note of it in his mind.

As Sakura moves into a more relaxed position, she thinks to herself, 'What is this feeling? Fear or excitement? How strange...'

Sakura lets out a sigh of relief, and looks at Sasuke who begins to tell Naruto that he is a scaredy cat, causing him to accumulate annoyance for him. Sakura looks over to his hand, "Naruto, You have poison entering your body. Their claws were soaked in poison".

"We must open up the wound and extract the poison and don't move too much by the way." Kakashi carries the slightly unconscious bodies and ties them to a tree.

"Tazuna-san, I need to talk to you." Kakashi looks over his shoulder, "These guys are Chunin class from the Hidden Village of Mist. They are ninja's known to keep fighting no matter what."

"How did you read our movements?" One of them asks.

"On a sunny day like this, when it hasn't rained in days… a water puddle shouldn't exist. Also, Sakura warned me that something was there." Kakashi says proudly. The ninja's tied up look at Sakura, "How could you sense that we were there?"

Sakura places points at her ears and stays silent, making them even more confused. Zoning out once again, Sakura doesn't listen at Kakashi telling Tazuna off for not telling the truth. They start to discuss that this mission should be in fact a B-Ranked mission instead of a C-Rank. Suddenly, Naruto stabs the hand where he was poisoned and shouts, "I'll protect the old man. We're continuing the mission!"

"Naruto, it's good you're releasing the poison but anymore... you'll die from lack of blood." Kakashi says with a closed eye smile. Sakura sighs and takes out a bandage wrap from her pocket, "Come here Naruto, let me see the cut." As she wraps the cut, Sakura spots the injury already healing.

"A…Am I going to be okay Sakura-chan?" Naruto asks with a weary voice.

"Hmm… More or less…" Is all Sakura says before finishing off. She finishes and lets go of Naruto's hand, still questioning his already healing hand.

"Hey Sakura," Kakashi call the girl, "Back then, something was happening to your hand. What was that about?"

"What are you talking about?" Sakura smiles forcefully and walks ahead of Kakashi. The teacher narrows his eyes at her as he wonders what kind of abilities she has hidden in her bag.

* * *

 _Time Skip to the beginning of the fight between Zabusa and Kakashi…_

A sharp sound is created in Sakura's ears, causing her to hold one of them, 'Huh… He's building up quite the amount of Chakra…'

"Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu…" Zabusa whispers, while hiding in the mist.

Kakashi explains the purpose of this Jutsu is to kill silently.

As the mist gets thicker, Zabusa threatens, "8 choices, liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, neck, brain, kidneys and the heart. Which one should I go for?"

Sasuke begins to shake with fear as he begins to run through the consequences of each action made in this mist. Sakura on the other hand in contemplating whether or not she should do something, 'I really don't want to use this Jutsu but it looks like I have no choice…'

Sakura places her kunai back into her pouch and sucks in some air, breathing in and out. She steadies her breathing patterns and clenches her fist.

"Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, don't worry; I'll protect you guys even if it kills me. I don't let my comrades die." Kakashi reassures the three.

Sakura tightens the muscles in her right arm and begins to summon Chakra through it. Fast paced wind begins to accumulate on her upper arm and all the way down to her fist. Zabusa appears in between the trio and Tazuna, mumbling, "It's over…"

Unfortunately, Sakura knew that he was going to appear there and quickly takes action; Chakra frequencies building up in her ears as Zabusa appears from one place to another. She spins around and punches Zabusa in the face with her right arm, causing him to fall back. 'Zabusa' falls to the ground and turns into a pool of water.

"…Tch…" Knowing that it's only water clone, Sakura quickly scans the area to look for the real Zabusa.

"…What…" Sasuke and Naruto look at Sakura in shock; her arm was covered in chakra shaped as a drill as wind also spins around it. However, Zabusa reappears in front of Sakura and tries to attack her. Kakashi steps in, pushing him back and stabbing Zabusa with a Kunai. Water begins to seep out of his body instead of blood, which makes Kakashi narrow his eyes.

"Sensei! Behind you!" Naruto shouts towards his teacher. Zabusa, reappearing behind him, takes out his sword and slashes Kakashi's water clone.

"Don't move…" The real Kakashi poses his Kunai against Zabusa's neck from behind him, "It's over."

"…!" Sakura realizing that wasn't the real Zabusa, shouts at him, "Sensei! That isn't him!". The real Zabusa materializes behind Kakashi, attacking him with his sword. Kakashi barely dodges by squatting down to the floor. However, Zabusa simply kicks him into the direction of the water. Falling into the water, Kakashi attempts to escape it but notices that it is unusually heavy.

"Suirō no Jutsu!" Zabusa traps Kakashi in a circular like water prison, "Now I have you in a inescapable prison!"

"We can finish things later, I'll take care of these kids first…" Zabusa creates more water clones, still keeping his hand in the water prison, "That girl with pink hair is going to be an annoyance though…"

Zabusa looks over at Sakura, noticing her arm still covered in chakra with a drill form, "I'll take you out first then; you look like trouble"

The water clone of Zabusa runs up to Sakura, trying to attack her with his sword. Sakura simply jumps up, dodging the attack, and stabs the water clone from behind.

'…Saving Kakashi will be the only way to have a definite win…' Sakura forces more chakra into her arm and quickly runs towards the real Zabusa.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" A large wave of water is launched at Sakura, causing her to fall into the water as well as undoing her technique.

"You're becoming quite the nuisance; I'll keep you in a prison and fight you later." Zabusa says, trapping her in the water prison with a clone.

'…I let my guard down…' Sakura grumbles in her head, 'Damn… I'm losing air… at this point I'm going to faint from lack of oxygen…'

"SAKURA!" Naruto shouts with worry.

"Before you worry about her, worry about yourself." Zabusa whispers to Naruto before kicking him away.

'Dammit…" Sakura's eyelids begin to fall, 'I'll leave it to you Naruto, Sasuke.'

* * *

Waking up, Sakura slowly opens her green eyes and observes her surroundings.

"Sakura!" Naruto cheers at the sight of the girl waking up, "Sensei! Sakura's is waking up!". Kakashi walks in, along with Sasuke, and sits down near Sakura.

"Hey Sakura… How are you feeling?" Kakashi asks.

"Hmm… What happened after I fainted?" Sakura sits up, sensing chakra patterns of regular people.

"We almost defeated Zabusa and it turns out someone who was supposedly disposing him, saved him…" Sasuke huffs.

"Sorry I fainted…" Sakura clenches onto the blanket.

"No," Kakashi pats Sakura on the head to reassure her, "You did well."

"We were about to go training! Do you want to join or stay here and rest?" Naruto grins at Sakura.

"I'll tag along I guess." She gets up and stretches her arms. Sakura averts her eyes to the side, 'I can't believe I got knocked out in the first five minutes of the battle... How weak am I right now? How am I supposed to find out what happened to _them_ if I can't even survive a simple blow to the head!'. Sakura mentally insults herself, feeling ashamed of the results of the battle. Despite them managing to win, Sakura beats herself up in her mind from the though of being useless in the fight.

* * *

Team 7 stands in a forest, talking about their training.

As Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi begin to discuss chakra and its basis, Sakura trail of thought goes back to wonderland.

'I know all of this…' Sakura thinks while wondering why the sky is so blue today. They continue to talk about tree climbing and how it is essential to a Shinobi.

"Of course, Sakura," Kakashi gets Sakura's attention, "You know this right? As seen from the technique you did with Zabusa". Sasuke and Naruto begin to start their training on tree climbing and fail repeatedly.

"Hey Sakura, I need to talk to you." Kakashi says.

"Hm?" Sakura replies plainly.

"That technique, I have never seen it before. Who taught that to you?" Kakashi queries from interest.

"Hmph Sensei…" Sakura puts on a smug look, "I have been using that technique since a long time ago. I didn't learn it from anybody." Kakashi looks at her with a shocked look. Sakura folds her arms, "6 years without anyone… What do you think I did in that time?"

"I see…" Kakashi closes his eyes, knowing that Sakura most likely made that technique by herself.

"If you excuse me, I will try to do my own training as well." Sakura sits on the floor, legs crossed and arms rested on her lap.

Closing her eyes, Sakura concentrates on the environment. Her ears pick up the smallest moments happening, from the breathing rate to bird's small chirps. All was going well until Naruto shouts, "Dammit!"

Sakura covers both of her ears from pain and glares at Naruto. She growls at him for making too much noise and sighs.

"Sakura…" Naruto whines, "Could you give me some tips?!"

Tilting her head in confusion, Sakura considers his question for a second before giving him an explanation on how to control chakra better. She notices that this is quite out of character for herself, but realises that it would better to help him than watch him die a painful death in front of eyes.

* * *

 _Next morning…_

'So bored… I'm unbearably bored…' Sakura sits up with a monotone face, 'Right… I need to protect Tazuna for the time being.'

"You seem all bored by yourself." Tazuna smiles kindly at Sakura.

Sakura gives straight face and nods her face, "The others are training and I was told to protect you for the time being."

Tazuna begins to walk to a store, since he needs to bring home supplies for lunch.

A stranger eyes Sakura's bag and reaches for it, only to receive a death glare from her. Absolutely terrified, the stranger runs away and cowers in fear.

* * *

 _2 days later…_

'Ever since Naruto has heard the story about Inari and his dad, he seems to be working harder.' Sakura thinks to herself while eating breakfast.

She looks up and notices Sasuke staring at her, causing her to tilt in head in confusion. Noticing that she is staring back, Sasuke quickly lowers his head and blushes.

"What…?" Oblivious Sakura, not noticing anything, asks about Sasuke's unusual behavior.

"…What did you tell Naruto?" Sasuke mumbles, hoping she didn't hear. Unfortunately for him, he was mumbling to a girl absolutely amazing ears.

"Oh, about training… Just to calm down." Sakura takes another bite into her rice.

"…" Sasuke blushes even more and stands up to walk outside.

'What a weird guy…' Sakura continues eating.

* * *

 _A few evenings later…_

"…Heh… Both of us made it to the top…" Naruto says in between his huffing, with his arm wrapped around Sasuke. Sakura, who doesn't really care, is in her room, looking at the moon with her eyes closed. Though she commends them in her mind for being able to make slight progress.

'So peaceful…' Sakura thinks happily. Until, she hears Inari screaming and telling Naruto that there is no point to training. Obviously, the blonde fires back at Inari and calls him a sissy. Sakura sighs and opens her eyes slowly; "The moon's a crescent today, huh?"

* * *

 _Next day…_

'Something seems off about today…' Sakura says, walking side by side with Tazuna. Spotting bodies on the floor, Sakura's eyes sparkle, "I knew it…"

"…Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu…". Mist begins to build up around everyone. "Long time no see Kakashi…" Zabusa whispers as dozens of water clones surround the group.

"Sakura…" Kakashi says her name, asking her to do something.

"…Fine…" Sakura, in one moment, slices each and every clone visible.

"Hm?" Zabusa looks impressed, "Looks like a rival has appeared. Eh? Haku?". The masked ninja next to Zabusa nods his head, "It does indeed."

"Hey girl... Try not to faint this time". Zabusa taunts Sakura, making her blush from embarrassment and clench her teeth.

Pushing her sleeves up, Sakura makes a 90-degree angle with her arm and plainly says, "I'll fight him". Before she can even take a step forward, Sasuke puts his arm out in front of her and stops Sakura, "I'll fight him."

Wanting to punch Sasuke, Sakura grits her teeth and crosses her arms while putting on a straight face, "No."

As Sakura was going to list reasons why he shouldn't, Kakashi places his hand on Sakura's shoulder and smiles, "Sasuke can handle this one. Since you have good tracking skills, I need you to stick by Tazuna and keep him safe". Sasuke flinches from Sakura being implied to be the stronger one. He starts to get attacked by Haku from all directions, however Sasuke manages to block each attack perfectly. Sakura was about to not concentrate on their fight anymore until,

"Makyō Hyōshō"

A dome like shape made from ice crystals in created.

'Hm…? Ice release?' Sakura narrows her eyes at the Jutsu, 'this might actually be bad…'

Hak begins to attack Sasuke rapidly through his Jutsu.

'This is why I should've been there…' Sakura shakes her head and slaps her face, 'Stop being such a whiny baby Sakura! Right now I have to deal with this. First, let me test this out.'

Swiftly throwing Shuriken's at the dome, Sakura wonders if she can attack from the outside. However, her weapons are blocked and deflected.

'It was worth a try…' Sakura thinks. Sensing something approaching, Sakura smirks and giggles internally, 'Aren't you late number one loudest ninja?'

Suddenly, Haku gets kicked in the face and is thrown out of the dome.

"…Naruto…" Sakura sighs.

He begins to make a speech on dreams and defending one another's beliefs.

* * *

"Sorry, but I'm going to end this instantly." Kakashi says, revealing his Sharingan to Zabusa.

The two begin to clash with one another, deflecting and attacking one another using Taijutsu. Suddenly, Zabusa appears behind Tazuna and prepares to stab him. Sakura who is still present, he lowers his guard to give a full on strike, which causes him to be punched in the stomach. Spitting out blood, Zabusa narrows his eyes at the girl, "Who are you anyways, girl?"

"Me?" Sakura flicks her hair and point her index finger at him, "Sakura Haruno."

"Haruno…?" Zabusa ponders, 'I've heard of that name… The Haruno clan…'

Kakashi then runs up to Zabusa and attempts to push Zabusa back, only to be cut by his sword. "You shouldn't worry about those brats over there; Haku has probably killed them by now. Plus, I'm about to send you to the same place as them. You can apologize to them in the next world for lacking the strength to protect them." Zabusa swings his blood-covered sword and smirks.

Sakura raises her head and slyly says, "I don't want to admit it but Sasuke and Naruto are pretty strong so I doubt your little friend can defeat them so easily"

"That's right, I believe in Naruto's determination and Sasuke's will. Along with that, we have two people who are offspring's to the most powerful clans here." Kakashi smiles.

"I knew it… Haruno and Uchiha clan isn't it?" Zabusa flinches at the names. Sakura looks away from hearing her clan's name.

Zabusa notices this and smirks, "Girl, you should have been there during the battle with the Haruno's. I wasn't personally involved but it looked amazing from afar… The special Kekkai Gekkai you probably have is…"

"Shut up…" Sakura reveals her covered eyes, showing a small glow of green in them, "Say my clans name in my face again; I'll kill you."

Zabusa quickly shuts his mouth and looks closely at Sakura, who is oozing off a very powerful murderous intent. Her eyes piercing into his soul.

* * *

An extremely sharp and painful frequency is suddenly shot into Sakura's ear, causing her yelp in pain while shooting her arms up to her ears.

'What the heck is this?! This chakra is too overwhelming!' Sakura falls to the ground in pain, making Zabusa and Kakashi look at her, 'My ears can't take this! Stop it!'. Sakura begins to pour tears from her eyes. 'This frequency! It's like from _that_ day! The feeling of anger and fear mixed together... STOP IT!'.

"Sakura! What's happening?" Kakashi screams at her. Sensing the overwhelming chakra from Naruto's direction, Zabusa and Kakashi both flinch at the extremely evil power. 'No way! Was the seal broken?' Kakashi rapidly moves his eyes.

"Sakura?" Tazuna kneels down and pats her shoulder, only for Sakura to jerk and scream.

'That's right! Sakura inherited the most powerful version of the Haruno Kekkai Gekkai! She's probably not perfected the technique and is taking in every chakra frequency she can hear. Not every Haruno was said to inherit it; even if they did, it would not be as powerful' Kakashi takes out a scroll and starts to write on it, 'I can still make it!'

"Hold on Sakura!" Kakashi reassures her. "Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu!" Nine dogs burst out from the ground, biting Zabusa and making him immobile.

"These are my cute nin dog…" Kakashi places on of his hands near his face, "The mist has cleared; your future is death."

* * *

 _In Sakura's head…_

'What is this?' Sakura looks around her, seeing a barren area with dead grass. She looks at the sky, noticing how purple and gloomy the sky is.

"Hmm… Seems like I can finally meet you…" An identical voice to Sakura's is heard.

"…?" Sakura looks up to see an identical version of her but instead of green eyes, her eyes are black.

"You must be wondering who I am…" The identical Sakura giggles darkly, "Nice to meet you; I'm Sakura. Well, I'm just your hidden side."

"Hidden side?" The real Sakura replies in utter confusion.

"That's right!" Identical Sakura laughs loudly, "I'm the side of you that you never want to reveal."

"I don't understand…" Sakura questions her strange personality.

"Of course you don't…" The supposed dark Sakura replies, "you're just too naïve to realize who I truly am."

"Where am I?" Green-eyed Sakura demands. "Right now, you are currently unconscious because of that sudden burst of chakra." Dark Sakura runs across the sand and leans towards the real Sakura, "You're being as useless as ever. Unconscious and oblivious to everything around you."

"…" Real Sakura leans back and feels guilty.

"Heh…" Smirking, Dark Sakura grins at the real one, "Don't you get it yet? You're being extremely useless right now. Just a piece of garbage that thinks it has some worth. Every single mission you do, you just faint and wake up with everything finished."

"…That's not true…" Sakura bites her upper lip.

"Oh but it is…" Dark Sakura's eyes glow slightly, "You should really just let me run free… I mean once you let me take over, you will be able to defeat every single person and quickly find out who destroyed your clan."

"You want to take over my body?" Sakura eyes widen. Retreating to a normal stance, Dark Sakura laughs and grins evilly, "I know you won't give up your body right now but, I can tell that you will soon…"

"…" Real Sakura, who is still very confused, stays silent and doesn't mutter a word.

"Looks like you're regaining consciousness; see you later… Sakura…" Dark Sakura smirks

* * *

Returning to reality, Sakura opens her eyes and notices the ringing in her ears has finally stopped.

She notices Kakashi stabbing Haku with Zabusa behind him.

'What happened when I wasn't awake?!' Sakura's mouth opens slightly from shock. Sakura immediately notices that Kakashi is already holding a dead body, making her narrow her eyes. 'My ears can't concentrate properly… I can't hear everyone's chakra's properly…!' Sakura pounds her fist into the ground in frustration. Detecting Naruto, Sakura calls out to him, "…Naruto!"

Naruto turns to her with guilt portrayed in his eyes.

"…Where's the other guy? Sasuke?" Sakura asks, slightly concerned. Looking away, Naruto doesn't say a word and stays silent.

"I'll go with you; that way you won't be breaking your sensei's orders." Tazuna holds Sakura's hands. They make their way to Sasuke's bloody body. Kneeling down to his body, Sakura moves a piece of hair away from his face.

"…Hey Sasuke… My ear's are a bit messed up right now; so I don't know if you are alive or what." Sakura touches his cold hand.

"Let it out, don't mind me…" Tazuna says, pitying Sakura slightly.

"You know I always thought I left all of the pesky emotions a long time ago. Like sadness and joy." Sakura covers her eyes. Tazuna looks at her with shocked eyes.

"I never got along with this guy as well. We always exchanged bad looks after I got a better score than him. I even had a nickname for him, 'attention seeking brat'…" Sakura bites her bottom lip.

"So why do I feel like something is about to burst in my heart?" Sakura places her hand on his cheek, "What is this?"

"I haven't felt something like this in six years…" Sakura sucks in air, she looks straight into Tazuna's eyes with pure fear written in them, "Hey... What is this? I don't get it. I don't like it. Tell me... what is this feeling?!".

"Sasuke! You better not die on me now!" Sakura closes her eyes and squeezes his hand.

…

'…!' Sakura opens her eyes, 'this frequency…!'

Sasuke opens his eyes while muttering, "Sakura… You're squeezing my hand and it hurts."

Biting her bottom lip, she tells Sasuke off, "You attention seeking brat! I was worried you big idiot!". Sakura unexpectedly wraps her arms around arms under his shoulders and pull him into an embrace. The unexpected and out of character action causes Sasuke to blush faintly and flush red. Realizing what she is doing, Sakura pushes herself off of Sasuke and puts her face into a straight monotone expression, "Sorry for the sudden affection…"

"YOU GUYS ARE TOO AT EASE!" The gang shouts at the shinobi's.

"You guys are dead!" They shout, earning a low growl from Sakura. Suddenly, Inari and the villagers step out, "If you come any further into our island, the citizens of this country will stop you with everything we've got!"

"Alright! Let me help out!" Naruto grins while casting his Shadow clones. The gang's attention gets redirected to Sakura as a dark aura is oozing out of her. She stands up and glares at them, cracking her fists.

"I didn't even get to fight properly just now… I guess you weak humans will have to do…" Sakura says with an evil glint in her eye.

Kakashi joins in by making millions of duplicates of himself, "So you want some of this?"

"NO WE DON'T!" They shout as they run away.

Sakura runs up to one of them and shouts, "What the heck? I was just getting ready for some action!"

Punching them with her drill chakra technique, Sakura punches one of them and sends them flying away. This makes the gang run away even faster.

"Sakura…" Sasuke gives her an amusing look and closes his eyes.

* * *

 _2 weeks later…_

Standing in front of two graves, team 7 pays their respects towards the two ninjas that they fought.

As Naruto reaches for the white mocha resting near the graves of Zabusa and Haku, only to be pulled back lightly by Sakura.

"That's bad Karma Naruto…" Sakura tells Naruto off with her monotone voice.

Rubbing his head, Naruto laughs lightheartedly and pulls his hand away.

The team begins to discuss topics surrounding the way of a Ninja, while Sakura silently pays her respects to the fallen ninjas.

Declaring with a light blush danced across his cheeks, Naruto pouts and says, "Okay! I've just decided! I'm going to be a ninja in my own way."

* * *

Standing at the entrance of the gate to the village, Tazuna and Inari send Team 7 off.

Inari and Naruto begin to 'fight' about how they both won't cry about them leaving. Sakura looks at the small boy, walking up to him and kneeling down to his level.

"…?" Inari looks at Sakura with confusion.

Staying silent, Sakura places her hand on top of Inari's head and begins to groom his hair, "Don't worry, we will come and visit…"

Inari, surprised from the amount of words Sakura said, blushes lightly and gives the girl and toothy grin, "You better!"

Sakura's hair covers her face as she smiles very softly, yet faintly. She stands up and waves goodbye to the young Inari, while walking away.

Walking across the bridge, Sakura stays silent as Naruto talks about how he wants ramen from Iruka. Kakashi eyes the pink haired girl strangely and tilts his head.

"Hey Sakura, why are you so quiet all of a sudden?" Kakashi smiles at her, causing her to only reply with a plain face; with the new addition of a sigh.

"…It's nothing…" Sakura lies.

'Back then when we were fighting with Zabusa, there was that strange chakra overflow… I wonder what it was… Maybe I'll ask Sensei when we get back.' Sakura ponders in her mind.

'Maybe that evil looking Sakura is right though... I'm just fainting and being forced to just listen to the outcomes of the battles. I'm weak.' Sakura walks and holds a sad expression.

* * *

 _Back in the village…_

"Alright! Go rest up! We will still have to complete other missions." Kakashi tells his team.

"I'm going to go find Iruka Sensei!" Naruto announces before running off.

"…hn…" Sasuke makes a small groan and walks away calmly, leaving only Sakura and Kakashi.

"Aren't you going to go Sakura?" Kakashi says, not trying to offend her.

"I have a question for you Sensei…" Sakura says with a serious tone, "When we were fighting against Zabusa and Hak, the reason why I fainted was because of the amount of chakra that was suddenly present".

Kakashi widens his eyes and begins to sweat, knowing where this conversation is most likely going to go.

"As you know, I still haven't perfected my Kekkei Genkai with the ability to hear frequencies of chakra. However, the amount of chakra you have isn't so strong to the point that my ears would burn. You should've noticed it as well; what was that on the bridge? The amount of chakra present at that time could only be…" Trailing off, Sakura stiffens her gaze at Kakashi, "A Jinchuriki."

"How do you know about that?!" Kakashi questions her.

"Kakashi, I will repeat myself again, what did I do for six years without anyone. I did nothing but study and try to perfect my moves. Kinda sounds like Sasuke right?"

'…What should I do?' Kakashi places his finger and thumb on his chin, 'Should I tell her the truth?'

"Tell me Sensei; is someone on my team a Jinchuriki?" Sakura takes a step forward.

"…" Hesitating before replying, Kakashi sighs and rubs the back of his head, "You might have come through stories concerning Naruto, so I might as well tell you."

Silence roams around the air for one minute, before Kakashi can reply once again, "Naruto holds the nine-tailed beast."

Widening her eyes, Sakura blinks rapidly, "Nine-tailed beast?! Isn't that the…"

Before she could continue, Kakashi covers her mouth to stop her from speaking, "It's best if you didn't say that out loud."

"Could you keep this a secret from Sasuke for a while?" Kakashi says, smiling with his eyes closed.

"…" Sakura takes his option into consideration and nods, "I supposed leaving him out of this could benefit the team somehow."

"Thank you Sakura." Kakashi gives his thanks and steps away from the cherry colored girl, "I'm going to report to the Hokage now; I'll see you later."

Sakura plainly nods her head, parting ways with Kakashi.

'Does that girl not know that her chakra is just as bad as Naruto's? Though if I think about it, her chakra wavers sometimes. What is Sakura holding in there?' Kakashi wonders with a smile, stuffing his hands into his pocket.

* * *

Walking home calmly, Sakura gazes at her house with slightly sad eyes. Quickly changing her face into a monotone expression, Sakura steps into her house and places her shoes tidily on the floor. Sliding the door open, Sakura enters a room with nothing but a single bookshelf inside it.

'It should be somewhere in here…' Sakura traces the tip of her index finger against the spines of books. Picking one that has a black cover, she slides the dusty book out of its comfortable space and flicks towards the middle.

'It's here…' Sakura emerald like eyes scan the handwritten sentences.

 _Entry number 777-_

 _Following the events prior to yesterday, the Jinchuriki of the nine tales has finally arrived to our village…_

 _Uzumaki Kushina…_

 _We will make sure to keep an eye on her, if the relationship between the Uzushiogakure and the Konohagakure becomes unstable._

 _End of Entry_

'Uzumaki…?' Sakura tilts her head to the right slightly, causing her bangs to fall on to her eye.

'Uzumaki Naruto…' Sakura closes the book, sliding it back into its place. The girl's smirk widens.

'This is one interesting team…'

 _ **End of Chapter 2**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**The never-ending cycle of pain Chapter 3**_

 _Few Days Later…_

Sakura walks to the meeting place, finding Sasuke standing there by himself. Remembering what she did to Sasuke (Hug him), Sakura grumbles and avoids eye contact with him.

"Hey Sakura…" Sasuke says her name, catching her attention. She makes a small hum, signaling that she is listening.

"That technique you used during our fight with Zabusa, what was it?" Sasuke asks from _slight_ curiosity.

Before she can even answer, Naruto shouts and frantically waves his hand at her, "Good morning Sakura!"

Making eye contact with Sakura, Naruto blushes ever so slightly and flicks his head away. Sasuke repeats this action as well. Tilting her head in utter confusion, Sakura stares blankly at the two and brushes it off while thinking, 'How weird…'

* * *

"Hey guys! I got lost!" Finally arriving, Kakashi waves at the trio with a smile.

"At least try to make a believable lie Kakashi…" Sakura scolds the white haired man.

As Naruto begins to, once again, complain about how Team 7 is only doing easy missions, Sakura looks out towards the sky, noticing many different sets of Chakra. Smirking, Sakura hides her slight excitement to herself, wondering what kind of people she will encounter.

'Foreigners?' Sakura's eyes narrow, 'So it's that time of the year huh?'.

* * *

After completing the day's missions, Sakura has her arm around Naruto to help support him as he walks. His slightly beaten up face turns into a sour expression as Sasuke makes fun of him by taunting. Before Naruto can go pounce on Sasuke, Sakura holds the blonde by his collar and pulls him back, "Calm down…"

"Also you Sasuke," Sakura glares at the Uchiha, "stop trying to annoy Naruto. It pisses me off…". Glaring into his soul, Sakura's eyes suddenly flicker a tint of black color in them. Sasuke growls in reply. Sakura, clearly agitated by Sasuke's cocky attitude, cheeks go slightly red from annoyance. She breathes in and out to try and relieve her anger, sighing deeply. Her eyebrows frown as she glares at her two other teammates.

"Hm…" Kakashi folds his arms, "Teamwork has been suffering lately."

"You're the one ruining our teamwork, Sasuke! Always hogging the spotlight, you bastard!" Naruto points at Sasuke. Turning around slowly, Sasuke grunts with a low voice, "If you want me to stop making you look bad, then just become stronger than me". Naruto clicks in frustration and glares harshly at Sasuke. Sakura's right eye is covered by her hair as fixes her gaze onto the sky once again, 'they're here now huh?'. Interrupting the tension, Kakashi coughs, "Okay, that's it for today. I'm going to submit this mission report."

Sakura nods her head and begins to walk off towards the direction where strange Chakra frequencies are building up. "Wait." Sakura is stopped by a firm grasp on her wrist. She looks at the person to see it's Sasuke.

"And what do you want?" Sakura's glare intensifies at the touch of another person. Wanting to see those with a strong and clear Chakra wavelength, Sakura gets annoyed at Sasuke holding her back from achieving her desires.

"I want you to train with me," Sasuke says bluntly, "You're pretty strong, so train with me". Sakura quickly breaks her monotone face as she scoffs with laughter, "I'm not obliged to help you get stronger in anyway, and therefore I shall not go with you. Also I have better things to do". Sasuke grits his teeth from Sakura's cold response and lets go of her arm by throwing it to her side.

'I can't believe I wasted so much energy over worrying about that guy…' Sakura groans and continues to walk, 'I don't get it… What is his problem...?'

Unknown to Sakura, Sasuke was thinking, 'what is her problem? Why is she so cold? Still, back when I 'died', she looked genuinely worried. Tch… I don't know anything anymore.'

* * *

Sakura, who went to buy a few sweets, exits the store and sees that a Sunagakure ninja holding Konohamaru by the collar. Sighing, Sakura raises her arm and slams it onto the ground. Cracks on the floor begin to form rapidly and head towards the Sungakure Ninja. The boy in response releases Konohamaru and jumps out of the way of the burst of wind from the ground created and barely evades the attack.

"What the hell?" The covered Suna ninja looks towards where the attack came from and spots Sakura.

"I don't mind you being in our village and all but, if you make a loud ruckus and scene, stop it. You guys are being a nuisance, especially to my eyes and ears." Sakura rests her hand on her hip and glares lightly at the ninja. She glares angrily at the disappointing results of her trying to find strong people.

"Sakura!" Everyone shouts. Sasuke, who is sitting on a tree, makes a sound of annoyance, 'tch… she came before I could do anything.'

Pulling out a bandaged object from behind his back, the ninja places it on the ground, "Heh… You seem pretty strong…"

"…" Sakura gives them a blank stare of disinterest and looks at Sasuke. "Sasuke…" Sakura begins, wanting to tell him about the person behind him but stops halfway.

"Hey, you're going to use Karasu?" The blonde girl asks her friend.

"Kankuro stop it." A voice echoes from behind Sasuke, making him jump. A boy with red hair and unique eyes is seen. The two look into each others eyes, enchanted slightly with what is held within them.

"Ah…" Sakura mumbles, regretting not telling Sasuke earlier. The boy continues to tell Kankuro off, saying his an embarrassment to their village. Gaara eyes pierce into Sakura's bored eyes while thinking, 'To actually be able to hit Kankuro with an attack… This is girl is interesting'. The sand village group stands together as Sasuke asks about why they are there. Before the sand group can answer, Sakura butts in and replies for them, "Chunin Exams right?"

"Yes, you're correct…" Kankuro mutters.

"So I guess you will enter as well, Gaara of the desert?" Sakura says with a fake smile plastered on her face. The opposing sand group looks at Sakura in surprise.

"Hm… And what's your name girl? I'm curious…" Gaara stare bores into Sakura's eyes.

"Sakura…" Her face drops the fake smile, returning to the usual monotone stare, "Haruno Sakura."

* * *

 _Team 7 is currently waiting for their Sensei to appear on the bridge…_

"…Making us wait again…" Sakura mumbles, playing with her long pink hair.

"I can't believe he told us to meet here and now he's late!" Naruto says throwing a tantrum. Sasuke pouts slightly but stays quiet.

"Morning people!" Kakashi waves to Team 7 and smiles kindly at them. Naruto proceeds to scold Kakashi for being late again.

"I know this is sudden but… I've nominated you guys for the Chunin selection exam." Kakashi hands them their sheets of paper.

Taking the sheet of paper, Sakura smirks internally and immediately poofs away from their team. She quickly runs home and looks at the sheet of her paper, "Chunin Exams hm? Time for things to get genuinely interesting…"

'If I can quickly become a high ranked Ninja, I can look from the person or group responsible for killing my entire clan…' Sakura squeezes the piece of paper in her hand and smiles.

'When I find that person… I will teach them a world of pain, just like what I experienced.'

* * *

 _Next day…_

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto frantically waves his hand at the girl.

Unexpectedly, Sakura returns the warm gesture by smiling lightly back, "Good Morning Naruto."

Sasuke and Naruto look at the girl in shock, due them not expecting a greeting or a smile.

Sasuke looks at her in question, 'Sakura seems weird today.'

* * *

Walking up to the supposed 'third floor', Sakura notices that a Genjutsu has been placed around this area. She stays silent, wanting others to find out for themselves. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura look around to find that two Shinobi's are blocking the way of the room for examination. The two start to discuss the difficulty of the Chunin exams, only to be stopped with Sakura's loud sighing.

"What do you want girl? You think these exams are easy? Think again!" One of the guys blocking the way shouts at Sakura, only causing her to smirk.

"Genjutsu hm?" Sakura mumbles, "I'm going to the third floor."

"…What is she talking about…?" Whispers fill the air around Sakura as they question her sudden outburst. She moves her gaze towards Sasuke and says with a monotone face, "Sasuke, I'm not bothered to explain. So since you probably noticed already, care to explain what floor we are actually on?"

Sasuke blushes faintly at Sakura's 'generosity' and makes a sound of annoyance, "Fine… You used a Genjutsu to make us think we are on the third floor. But actually, we are on the second floor". The Genjutsu was released and the sign on the door is revealed to say 201 instead of 301.

"Hm… Not bad… But all you did was see through it!" The boy with bandages on his face kicks towards Sasuke, causing him to return the attack. As fast as light, a boy with a strange haircut and eyes holds their arms and legs. Sakura's eyes widen slightly as she is surprised someone in these exams has the potential to be strong.

'Hm… I'm a bit weary about this guy; that Chakra around his arm is just…' Sakura places her hand on her chin. A guy with long hair and purple eyes speaks up towards his supposed team member, "What happened to the plan? You're the one who said we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves."

The boy with strangely cut hair turns his attention to look at Sakura and blushes. He walks towards the girl with a confident smile.

"My name is Rock Lee! Yours is Sakura right?" Rock smiles brightly at Sakura. Sakura blinks twice before tilting her head in confusion, "Yeah that's my name."

"Let's go out together! I'll protect you 'til I die!" Rock Lee grins proudly and puts a thumb up.

"…" Sakura stays silent, still trying to process the meaning of 'go out'.

"Go out?" Sakura stares at Naruto, wanting answers. "He means he wants to date you Sakura-chan!" Naruto laughs, knowing that Sakura will, one hundred percent, reject him.

"Date?" Sakura remembers that she once read in a book that is what supposed girlfriends and boyfriends do. "Sorry… I have someone I'm interested in right now…" Sakura says with a completely straight face.

"Huh?! Sakura you have someone you like?!" Naruto clutches on to Sakura's shoulders. Sasuke looks at Sakura, interested who she likes.

"Yeah. I like someone…" Sakura says, averting her eye contact to the wall. Sakura bites her bottom lip while thinking, 'Sorry but that was a complete lie. I don't know what love feels like so…'

"Hey you," A boy voice speaks out towards Sakura, "What's your full name?". Spotting that it is the boy with strange purple eyes and long hair, Sakura raises her shoulders and huffs, "You'll find out later. It's too much of a bother trying to explain who I am…"

Sakura, walking off somewhere else, slowly paces herself towards the actual examination room.

* * *

As they walk towards an area, Rock Lee's voice calls out towards them, "Hey, guy with dark eyes"

Indicating that it's Sasuke, he turns around and replies with a grunt, "What is it?"

"Will you fight me right here?" Rock Lee says bluntly.

"…" Sakura looks at the two with a plain face before interrupting him by saying, "You guys can fight all you want but I'm going to leave."

"…Sakura…" Sasuke mutters her name.

"Go and do your test of strength or whatever but I can't stand meaningless events, therefore I'll go on ahead." Sakura says before calmly walking away. Unknown to Sakura, an intense fight between Sasuke and Rock Lee was currently breaking down.

* * *

Sakura, who took a mini break before heading towards the room realises that her two other teammates should be present. Walking calmly towards 301, the examination room, Sakura spots Sasuke and Naruto looking even more pumped up than usual. She tilts her head slightly and shrugs off their sudden determination. Sasuke walks up to Sakura with Naruto by his side, smiling and saying, "Are you ready to go? Naruto, Sakura!". Shocked by his sudden outburst, Sakura is taken back slightly, and replies by shouting back, "Y…Yeah!"

Spotting their teacher, Kakashi, the three look at him as he says with a bored tone to his voice, "All three of you are here; good. Now we can take the exam properly."

"What do you mean Sensei?" Sakura asks.

"Truth be told, this test can only be taken in groups of three. The exam would have ended if one of you didn't show up and the exam would have ended here. But, all of you came on your own accord. I'm proud of you." Kakashi says with a genuine smile. Naruto, grinning widely, shouts, "Yeah! Lets go!"

* * *

Opening the door to the exam, Team 7 is greeted with large number of eyes staring at them. Sakura looks to the side, slightly uncomfortable with the amount of people present.

"Sasuke-kun!" A high-pitched voice rings from behind Sasuke, glomping them from behind. '…' Sakura pauses and looks at the blonde girl, '…I forgot her name… This is bad… She might talk to me and I don't even know who she is.'

"Ino!" Naruto says in shock.

'Ino…? Oh right, that's her name.' Sakura thinks while trying not to laugh. Suddenly, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji appear behind Yamanaka Ino, "You guys are taking the stupid test too? Don't die…". Straight after, Hyuga Hinata, Inazuka Kiba and Aburame Shino greet the rest of their ex-classmates.

"Hey, you guys should be more quiet; this isn't a picnic." A man with white hair and glasses scolds the rookie ninjas with a subtly strict tone.

"I'm Kabuto, but instead of that, look behind you," Kabuto gestures to the crowd behind them, "Those guys are from the Amegakure; they have short tempers." Sakura turns her head, without moving her body, and tilts her head to be met with glares. In return, Sakura emits an even darker aura and fiercer stare than any of them. Receiving goose bumps from Sakura's evil stare, the shinobi from Amegakure turn their heads away and try not to show their fear. Trying to keep her inner self from going wild, Sakura places a hand on her chest and tries to calm herself down.

'…Oops…' Sakura thinks, '…I accidently glared at strangers again…'. As Sakura begins, to once again, doze off into her imaginary world of nothingness, Kabuto begins to explain different Ninjas present in the area and who's strong and who isn't. Sakura snaps out of it after hearing Naruto's change in frequency.

'Fear?' Sakura looks at the quivering Naruto, '…Excitement…?'

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto outbursts, "I won't lose to you bastards!". Sakura sighs as pretends not to know who Naruto is, while the others in the room look at Naruto in annoyance. Out of nowhere, a Otogakure ninja pounces and attacks Kabuto. He dodges but his glasses get destroyed as he starts to throw up. Sakura, who closed her eyes, peaks at the three ninjas who attacked Kabuto and just lets out a small giggle, 'How idiotic can those Otogakure Shinobi get?"

"Quiet down you worthless bastards!" A loud commanding voice echoes out from the smoke screen created in the front of the room.

"Thanks for waiting. I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the Chunin selection exam's first test." The Shinobi with scars on his face says proudly. He begins to discuss about the test and rules applying to the first part of the exam, while telling the Shinobi from Otogakure off.

"You will pick one of these tabs and sit in the seat assigned to you. We will then hand out the exams." Ibiki announces. Naruto, trying to wrap his mind around what he just said, pauses for a minute before screaming, "What?! A paper test?!". Siting down behind a few seats Naruto, Sakura smirks at the idea of a paper test. As she doesn't listen to Ibiki explaining things, Sakura looks around her and observes the people around her.

'I wonder who will drop out first?' Sakura giggles internally at the thought of people not being able to complete the test. As soon as Sakura hears it is a team test, Sakura clicks her tongue together and furiously slams her elbow onto the desk. She becomes even more annoyed when he hears that if someone gets the test completely wrong, the entire team will fail.

'…Actually…' Sakura places her thumb on her chin, 'With the way his frequencies are wavering… I'm pretty sure that this guy is…'

Sasuke and Sakura look at Naruto with an eye-ripping glare.

* * *

"The exam will last one hour…" Ibiki pauses, "BEGIN!"

'That idiot Naruto…' Sasuke and Sakura think at the same time.

Sakura gazes down at her paper, skimming through the words. 'Too easy…' Sakura smirks while quickly scribbling down all the answers and turning her sheet over so that no one can supposedly 'reference' her paper easily.

'…Now…' Sakura closes her eyes and focuses her concentration on her hearing ability, '…Time to get to work…'. Analyzing each and every frequency present in the room, Sakura notices a certain person with a similar pattern to Naruto. She tries to memorise each and every frequency present within this room, knowing that these patterns will be significant for later on.

'…Gaara…' Sakura rules out the only person in the room who could possibly be the person who could have the same potential as Naruto, 'is he a Jinchuriki too? If yes, I wonder which one he would possibly be…'

Sakura, accidently falling asleep, is woken to the sound of Naruto screaming something along the lines of, "Don't underestimate me! I will take the tenth questions!"

The pink haired girl wipes her face with her forearm and looks at Naruto. Before Sakura could fall asleep again, Ibiki shouts with a proud face "I congratulate you on passing the first test!"

"Oh come on…!" Sakura whispers in anger, wanting to sleep due to being slightly drowsy, "Let me sleep!"

Everyone begins to mummer and give strange looks of confusion. As Ibiki begins to explain that the exam was to test your ability to gather information and decide whether you will 'take it' or not, Sakura rolls her eyes crosses her arms.

'Come on… Even a baby could tell you were lying about that tenth question thing Ibiki… Don't lie to a Chakara examining Shinobi…' Sakura smirks under her hand, which is covering the bottom half of her face. Hearing a sudden wave of Chakara, Sakura moves back slightly as a person with dark black hair with a purple tint to it shouts, "You guys! This is no time to be celebrating! For I am the second examiner for the test, Mitarashi Anko! Let's go!"

Sakura eyes their invigilator with her right eye, pushing her cherry locks behind her ear. One comment was held in her mind,

'...It's hot.'

* * *

As the twenty-six remaining team walk towards their next exam, more of them begin to sweat as an eerie forest enters their field of vision.

Sakura looks at the forest with anticipation as she hears low frequencies erupting from the forest.

"Welcome to the second stage, area forty-four. Also known as the 'Forest of Death'." Mitarashi Anko says with a smug look on her face. Naruto continues to blindly declare his braveness towards this test; on how he is not afraid at all. This leads to Anko's weird performance with cutting Naruto's cheek and licking his blood, as well as that weird dude with long hair passing her the kunai with his tongue.

The strange man with long hair smiles kindly at Sakura, making her give him a look disgust and pity. 'What a disgusting and revolting piece of work this guy is. If it wasn't for the risk of jeprodisring my qualification, I would have sprayed that weirdo with long hair with oil and set him on fire'. Realising that her imagination is running wild, Sakura coughs and shakes herself out of her dark thoughts.

Anko proceeds to explain the rules of the second test; Sakura can't stop herself from being slightly excited. From Naruto and Sasuke's perspective, it just looked like Sakura was worried (though it was direct opposite). Excited for being a step closer to being officially called a stronger Ninja (chunin), Sakura observes all of her opponents.

* * *

 _Arriving at Gate 12..._

Sakura feels a huge ringing in her ears; feelings of fear, anger, excitement, confusing; the list goes on. Sakura enjoys the mix of emotions in her ears, knowing that there are strong people out there that will try to do anything to obtain their goal. 'Bloodlust... Haven't experienced this one in a while'. Suddenly feeling a hand on her shoulder, Sakura spins her head around to see that Naruto is looking at her with worry written all over his face.

"Sakura... You don't have to be worried; we are there for you". Naruto utters genuinely to Sakura while holding a goofy expression of oblivion on his face. Sakura scoffs gently at him, trying not to offend Naruto. She smiles lightly at the blonde boy and giggles, "Naruto I am not scared. This is nothing compared to before. I am simply just excited to see what is in there. If anything, you guys don't have to worry since I am here for you. I'll protect you guys."

Oblivious to hurting their man pride, Sakura spins around to face the gate with a serious expression, 'let's see what monstrosities you hold in this area...'.

As the time is set for exactly for 5 days, the trio run into the forest knowing exactly what to look for. As they leap from branch from branch, with Sakura at the back as she is a good tracker, Sakura forces to the group to stop by whistling. She hears wavering frequencies and suddenly a scream is heard in the distance. Before the other two can comment, Sakura professionally states, "Those were most likely leaf ninja, though I am not specifically sure. They are too far away and my Kekkai Gekkai isn't perfect yet".

The other two nod, though Naruto's confident face quickly changes to discomfort. "...Need to pee... Be right back!" Naruto runs off, needing to take care of 'business'.

Sakura notices a change in frequency when Naruto comes back and glares at him. She swiftly stabs 'Naruto' in the face and proceeds form chakra in her stomach, "Suiton: Suidan no Justu! (Water style: Water Bomb Jutsu!)". Expelling a large blast of water from inside her, she blasts the 'Naruto' and forces them to revert to their original form. The fake attempt to run away, but Sasuke quickly reacts by creating a fire based Jutsu and tries to chase the ninja down. However, Sasuke gets caught in an explosion, getting hurt along the way. Sakura quickly frees Naruto by cutting the ropes tied around him and prepares her next Jutsu as the ninja fights against Sasuke.

"Sasuke move out of the way!" Naruto warns Sasuke, causing him to jump away. The opponent attempts to leave as well but is too late. Sakura throws her next move, "Suiton: Mizu Shuriken! (Water style: Water Shuriken)", she rapidly throws her jutsu into the opponents arms, making them rendered useless at this point. Before Sakura can get the opportunity to kill this opponent, he quickly runs away. The three let out a breath of relief and start to discuss codewords.

Suddenly, there is a huge explosion, and the group try to reunite. Though before, Sasuke orders Sakura to state the codeword, which she obviously answered correctly (as well as groaning at him slightly). Naruto also states the codeword, giving away that he is not the real Naruto. Sakura springs into action once again and summons water shurikens once again to get the fake. The fake reveals his (disgusting) face, amused and impressed that they could see the facade.

The strange snake like man pulls on his eye, causing them to be in a genjustu where they are to be 'killed'. Though, to this strangers surprise, Sakura stands still with a calm posture, along with an unfazed expression. She scoffs and laughs, "Genjustsu huh...?". Sakura quickly takes out her kunai and places a small cut on Sasuke, causing him to become undone from the trap. Sakura uses this opportunity to quickly create a small explosion to get her and Sasuke out of that area.

Dragging Sasuke behind her, she shoves him into a tree trunk and places her hand over her mouth, "Stop panicking Sasuke; your frequencies are all over the place. Calm down". Sakura looks straight into Sasuke's eyes and notices a small change in the environment around her. Obviously tired, Sakura tries to protect Sasuke from the incoming snake headed their way, only to end up slicing the snake. Naruto emerges as the snake curls his way onto the tree-trunk and throws normal shurikens and killing it, stating that he forgot the codeword. Relieved, Sakura realises that she used up quite a lot of chakra from earlier, and is thankful for Naruto's arrival.

* * *

 _During the long fight (after Sasuke snaps out of it)..._

"I knew it..." He gives Sakura and Sasuke a maniacal look, "I want both of you!". He introduces himself as 'Orochimaru' and gives Sasuke a suspicious mark on his neck. Sakura grossed out and kind of irritated by the situation (due to the fact that Orochimaru was powering over them in the battle), glares at Orochimaru.

Orochimaru licks his lips and moves his gaze towards Sakura, "Looks like the princess doesn't know anything; maybe one day you will find out about your clan... 'The Haruno's'". Obviously affected through the name of her clan being stated, Sakura tries to prepare her tornado like jutsu around her arm (which she named 'tatsumaki') but fails due to the lack of energy.

Sasuke in pain, Naruto passed out, Sakura out of energy. Sakura tears up from the amount of pain she can hear from Sasuke screaming from the curse mark, hugging him into an embrace; for once Sakura was lost and out of ideas on how to deal with the situation.

'I WaNt tO tAkE ReVeNgE' Is what is ringing through Sakura's head as she lays a towel on Sasuke's head; the burning desire to kill those who hurt her team growing inside of her.

 _'Just embrace me Sakura; we can take everything and everyone out here if you just let me take over...' The darkness within her starts to reverberate whispers of death inside of her, tempting her into letting everything go and taking an easy route._

She internally tells the voice inside of her to shut up and continues to stay awake. She's out of energy, frazzled from the previous battle and can't hear frequencies properly. Though this doesn't mean she can't fight; she can hear her opponents. Annoyed and honestly feeling just quite pissed off, she calls out to them, "If you're going to creepily watch me from a distance then just come down here!".

"I agree. You people shouldn't be picking on such a beautiful lady..." A proud distinct voice booms; this voice obviously belonging to one and only Rock Lee. Sakura smiles at his presence and stands up to fight along side with him.

* * *

Sakura was in a pinch, she accidentally miscalculated an attack and is now in grip with their opponent; they are holding her hair. They start to go on and on (or in Sakura's words - "they started to yap on about things I honestly don't give a c*** about"). Sakura raises her hand, stating, "It's hot anyways; perfect timing". Sakura uses her tatsumaki jutsu (her tornado jutsu) and uses it to slice a huge portion of her hair, while stabbing the person in the arm at the same time.

"You can go screw yourself"

* * *

 _Skip to the beginning of the preliminary exams ..._

'Many things happened during that exam but if I were to summarise it; We met a weird pervert called 'Orochimaru', who gave Sasuke a curse mark. Then Sasuke started calling himself an avenger and stuff... Finally, we were going along with Kabuto but I really don't trust him.' Sakura eyes Kabuto with doubt. 'If I were to comment on something... Naruto certainly grew up. Oh and... Sasuke is a huge dick.'

The Preliminaries screen starts to buzz, with Sasuke's fight already done, along with a few others.

 **Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino**

 _End of Chapter 3_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

Hair fluttering in the slight breeze, Sakura's eyes stare at the screen blazing her name with her opponents name. She scoffs and crosses her arms, 'Too bad I couldn't go up against someone stronger...'. Sakura eyes avert towards the blonde across her as they both walk down towards the area designated for them to fight. Her eyes blazing with determination, Sakura starts thinking on how to beat Ino's 'Mind Body Switch Technique' and gets pumped up.

 _Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino_

Sakura smirks and stares Ino straight into the eye, 'You're just an obstacle in my way. I will defeat you and move forward Ino!'. She starts to get into a fighting stance, while Ino does the same thing. Noticing the smirk on Sakura's face, Ino becomes angry.

"Sakura! Don't you look down on me! I will defeat you!" Ino scream at Sakura. Sakura simply looks at Ino and mockingly scoffs at her, causing Ino to whip out a kunai. Ino cuts her hair short as well, making Sakura shocked, and throws it behind her. "Now we are equal!" Ino smiles with fury written on her face. As a reaction, Sakura looks to the side as she notices that Ino's frequencies are ringing with courage. Sakura smiles at Ino's determination.

The invigilator for the battle makes them start, causing both of them to not move away but simply stare at each other.

Ino prepares her technique as Sakura just stands there, "Sakura why aren't you moving?!" Ino screams at the amused Sakura.

"Oh I just want to see how this works. Plus, I wanna see if you made any sort of progression since the academy". Sakura mocks, shrugging her shoulders and laughing at Ino. She holds a dark look in her eyes; they give out a menacing look of pity.

Even more fired up, Ino screams at Sakura as she activates her technique, "I said don't look down on me!". Ino successfully activates her 'Mind Body Switch Technique' and invades her mind.

* * *

'This is the inside of Sakura's mind?' Ino says floating around in her mind, 'Time to force Sakura to forfeit'. Before Ino can even attempt control Sakura's body, a dark shadow crawls towards Ino and envelops her body. Ino screams loudly, fear lacing her voice.

A demon-like figure appears in front of Ino, red eyes looking straight into her soul. The shadow speaks with a low voice, "Get out of here."

* * *

Forcing herself out of Sakura's mind, Ino begins to cough rapidly and look at Sakura, who now had her eyes opened. Sakura crosses her arms and looks down at Ino who is on the floor trying to recover, "Left my mind already? I thought you would have fun in there". Sakura steps closer towards Ino, her arm building up chakra with wind rapidly spinning around it. Ino stares at Sakura in fear, with what she saw and what she is seeing deeply engraved in her mind.

The people outside of the battle stare at Sakura and Ino's battle wondering what happened that made Ino just completely drop her battle.

Sakura raises her arm, which has 'tatsumaki (the drill technique)' activated, "Forfeit Ino and I won't hurt you". Both of their hair rapidly moving around as her technique is generating huge gusts of wind passing by them. Ino, with the courage left states, "I won't forfeit!".

Sakura sighs at her determination to not give up, tilting her head, she says while plunging her technique into her side, "wHaT a CoMpLeTe FoOL". Blood rushes out from Ino's side, spilling to Sakura's hand and the floor. The tempting crimson colour coats Sakura's arm, making her hold out her hand in disgust for the sticky substance.

Ino immediately faints from shock and lays down onto the ground. Sakura hears people rushing towards Ino, making her dispel her technique.

"Winner: Haruno Sakura!"

Shikamaru, Choji and Asuma look at Sakura with worry. Sakura notices their distraught frequencies and shakes her hand, "Don't worry. I didn't stab any vitals. So you can rest easy and stop looking at me with such worry". Sakura walks towards where Sasuke and Naruto were.

"You were awesome Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaims, holding a wide grin on his face, "Though you were pretty scary towards the end...". Naruto mumbles towards the end, though Sakura hears it as her ears are sensitive. Sakura looks at Naruto and gives him a pitiful look while thinking, 'Like what is inside of you is any better Naruto...'. Sakura smirks at her remark.

Not wanting to continue the conversation, Sakura walks off and huffs at everyone as they stare at her disappearing figure. She goes towards the infirmary and observes all the injured people. Her ears ring slightly from painful chakra's which are seeping out a distressed emotion from each of them. She grinds her teeth together and leaves the infirmary.

Sakura hear her inner self chuckling insanely, _'Sakura! Didn't that feel exhilarating?! I mean even you have to admit that stabbing into the side was pretty fun right?!'_. The girl shakes her head and rushes towards a bathroom and washes the blood off of her hands. Fully concentrated on the red colour slowly going down towards the hole of the drain, Sakura's eyes narrow. She smiles uncomfortably and lowers her head while looking into her reflection in the mirror. She stares into her own eyes; her gaze wandering to her now short hair.

'I'm one kind of a monster aren't I?'. Sakura thinks to herself while moving her arms to press against the sink, shifting her weight towards it while slouching her back.

* * *

Sakura slowly walks towards the main hall once again and stands behind the others who have passed the preliminary tests. She shifts her weight towards the right side, crossing her arms while her gaze traces onto all the contestants. 'Shikamaru, Naruto, Neiji, Gaara...' Sakura goes on to list her possible opponents in her head. Noticing that Sasuke is missing, she scoffs internally.

As the instructors continue to prattle on about what will happen, Sakura's eyes travel towards Gaara. 'I wonder what kind of monster you hold in that body of yours Gaara. A beast? Wouldn't it be pretty if I could hear what is going on in your head right now... I'm not that skilled yet though; I need to practice more and improve my ears'.

Gaara notices Sakura staring at him and glares at her, and in response she smiles 'kindly (and also very fake-like)' back to him.

* * *

As all the contestants start to pull out their numbers from a box, which is the deciding factor for their opponent in the exams, Sakura watches Naruto as he confusingly pulls out a sheet of paper with a 1 on it. Sakura closes her eyes and listens to the anxiety flowing in the atmosphere; the tense feeling is almost exciting towards her.

As Sakura pull out her sheet, she reads the large number on it.

Her number is '6'.

Sakura smiles as everyone reveals their numbers, "I am 6". The Hokage the announces that he will be revealing the final tournament based on those numbers. Ibiki raises a sheet which shows a graph depicting the matches of each potential chuunin. She looks at Kankuro, only to see that he is also looking at her. She smirks widely and looks at him straight in the eye with her emerald eyes, "Can't wait to have a match with you". Her eyes gleam (not in the nice way) with excitement laced with desire.

* * *

'Now that I now have information on who are my opponents are, It is time to train and prepare. Though who would be willing to teach me?' Sakura sighs and shrugs her arms, 'Maybe I should just do independent training like usual?'. Sakura ponders while walking towards her house and twirls. After realising what she just did, Sakura rapidly checks to see if anyone saw her behave like a child just now. She places her hand onto her chest and haves out a breath of relief.

' _Why don't you just learn some techniques that will wipe out your opponents? Something that will make their guts splatter!'_ Inner Sakura squeals in delight as she spouts more nonsense about jutsu's destroying her opponents completely. Sakura walks into her house, throwing her shoes off and speed walks towards a certain room which is empty.

Sakura places her hand onto the floor and inserts chakra into it, allowing a door to fly open which shows stairs leading downwards. Sakura steps downwards into the room and turns on the lights. Due to the colour of the lights, the rooms seems to be emitting a blue shade. She closes the secret door and looks into the cold square shaped room made from stone, holding bookcases lined against each wall. A blue circular mat sits in the middle of the room. Sakura sits in the middle of the carpet and crosses her legs.

Sakura slowly closes her eyes and lets out a soft sigh. She concentrates on her ears, focusing and listening to anything that makes sound. The flickering or the lights clicking slightly, the sound of her own breath; she hears everything in the room. Sakura sucks in air and squeezes her eyes shut even more.

'Concentrate... Focus on hearing things outside this room...' Sakura thinks to herself.

Birds chirping, water flowing, leaves shaking; Sakura hears these things from inside an enclosed room. Standing up, Sakura decides that she should try and practice some justu's. Sakura goes towards the bookcase in front of her and pulls a book out and pushes a piece of the wall. She pulls her arm out and the bookcase starts to move inwards, revealing another room within which holds more important and significant books. Sakura picks up the black book and flips towards the middle.

'I guess it is time that I learnt these two jutsu's. Summoning Jutsu and Hidden Haruno Justu's. Sakura giggles from excitement and and sits back down onto the carpet. Sakura opens the scroll which she needs to sign to form a contract, reading that only one other person made a contract with this species which was her father. Sakura bites her thumb to make it bleed and signs her name, as well as implanting her fingerprints, onto the scroll.

Sakura quickly runs out of the secret room, making sure to lock it behind her, and moves towards a larger space which was the located in the middle of her own compound. Sakura moulds her chakra and places her hand on the floor.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (summoning jutsu)!". A large smoke cloud arises and a voice growls out from the smoke, while it's piercing blue eyes stare at Sakura.

"Are you the one who called me child?" A large figure emerges, twice the height of Sakura, "You have a similar smell to my previous master". A wolf, covered with a white coat of fur and striking blue eyes looks down onto Sakura.

"I am Haruno Sakura, the last of the Haruno's. I have called you to ask you a question!". Sakura introduces herself proudly while looking straight into eyes of the wolf.

The wolf chuckles deeply, his eyes not leaving the figure of Sakura, "What is your question?".

"Would you be willing to fight alongside me?". Sakura asks politely.

The wolf chuckles and he lowers himself so that he is at eye level with Sakura, "What a funny question Sakura... My name is Shiro. It would be an honour to serve you battle...". Shiro lowers his head, bowing to Sakura.

Sakura curtsies and smiles happily at Shiro, "The pleasure in mine".

* * *

 _Time Skip to Tournament Day..._

 _'_ Today is the day... I will finally be able to display everything I have trained for...' Sakura looks from the stadium and gazes at the crowd looking down at them. She clearly hears their voices of excitement as they look at the potential chuunins. Sakura smirks as crosses her arms.

"Thank you to everyone for coming to Hidden Leaf Chuunin Selection!". Hokage announces that the tournament is about to start.

"There have been some changes to the tournament order...". Sakura looks at the sheet and notices that right after Naruto's battle is hers with Kankuro. After that battle is Gaara and Sasuke's.

* * *

 _After Naruto and Neiji's fight..._

"... I did not expect that to actually happen..." Sakura mumbles under her breath as she watches Naruto actually defeat Neiji, "It's a good thing I didn't bet any money on this...".

Sakura jumps up from her seat and walks towards the tournament area. Having her arms crossed, she wobbles her way into the middle of the fighting area and looks Kankuro straight in the eye while forcing a smile, "Let's have a good fight!". Sakura hears the murmurs of the crowd talking about her clan and how she will eventually win. Sakura couldn't agree more with crowd about the outcome of this battle.

 _"Haruno Sakura vs. Kankuro"_

 _"Battle Start!"_

Kankuro immediately jumps back and prepares to fight Sakura and gets into a fighting stance, though is shocked as Sakura simply stands still with her arms crossed and eyes closed. The sand ninja, slightly offended from this mockery, runs towards Sakura and prepares to fight her close-combat. He tries to swing a punch at her but Sakura steps to side a dodges his attack. Kankuro continues to try and land a hit on Sakura but she twirls around him and keeps dodging. From a distance, it looked as if Sakura was just playing with him and dancing around his moves.

Sakura jumps away from him, landing a few meters away from him and opens her eyes finally, looking him straight in the eye, "Not only are you not using your full power, but your not using that ridiculous puppet behind you...". Kankuro's eyes twitch at the mention of his speciality.

Sakura giggles and suddenly declares, "Hahaha... I'm offended!". Suddenly a cold and dark aura emits from Sakura; her Chakra outflow makes the crowd nervous and anxious. Sakura suddenly raises one of her arms straight up so that it pointed towards the sky, "I thought this would be more fun".

Her emerald eyes start to glow and wind starts flow around Sakura as she points her arm towards Kankuro, "Hijutsu: Kūkyo (Hidden technique: Emptiness)". Kankuro runs towards Sakura as she chants her technique, but falls in between his run. Everyone looks at Kankuro in shock as he starts to hold onto his head and curls into a ball while gasping for air. He pants horribly and his breathing is unstable.

"... That technique truly forces you to feel emptiness. I shall lock your senses and place you into a nightmare of torture until you give me what I want..." Sakura states quietly while walking slowly towards Kankuro. She looks straight down on him and chuckles at the helpless state of him.

 _"Winner: Haruno Sakura!"_

Sakura steps back in annoyance and glares at the announcer. The announcer looks at Sakura and says, "Release him from that state". Sakura pouts but obeys what he says and removes her technique, making Kankuro gasp and get up from shock.

Sakura slowly walks back to the stands while listening to the crowd; it's full of uneasiness. The crowd claps awkwardly as Sakura retreats back to her seat.

* * *

The Hokage looks at Sakura's slouched figure as she sits back down sadly, thinking in his mind, 'She definitely has more potential than just a regular genin or chuunin. She could become an ANBU member in the future.'.

* * *

 _After Shikamaru vs Temari match..._

Shikamaru and Temari's match got moved up as Sasuke still was not present. Though Shikamaru won the battle, he lost the match due to him giving up. Sakura sighs at his idiocy. Sakura notices someone staring right at her, making her look up. 'Gaara...' Sakura thinks as their eyes lock, 'What does this angsty child want?'. Sakura chuckles and decides to play with him by using one of her water techniques.

As Gaara continues to stare, he suddenly feels water spray him from the back of his head making him look back then glare at Sakura. 'Wow that look... He could kill me... I would love to see you try Gaara...' Sakura laughs on the inside while raising her shoulders at him. Kankuro and Temari look at Sakura in shock for her bravery.

Gaara suddenly disappears using his sand and appears behind Sakura silently. Before Gaara could even touch Sakura, "You know you are pretty loud. If you want to kill me, try to actually sneak up on me you angsty child." Sakura stands up looks at Gaara in the eye, her face painted with full mockery of his failed attempt.

The red-head reaches his hand out to her, but she slaps his arm away while saying, "Don't touch me; you'll get me dirty with your sand".

"My other angsty teammate is also coming soon; I can hear him. You might want to get to the stage and prepare for the battle against Sasuke." Sakura sits back down and listens as Gaara travels down to the fighting area.

* * *

 _In between Sasuke and Gaara's match..._

'Genjutsu?' Sakura thinks while releasing it using 'kai'. Sakura stands up and looks towards the middle of the area with Gaara and Sasuke. She jumps down and stands next to Sasuke.

Sasuke looks at her with shock, "Sakura? I haven't seen you...". Sakura ignores Sasuke's acknowledgement and looks at Gaara who is currently on the ground in pain, with his siblings holding him.

"Abort the mission and take Gaara with you," The sand ninja in front of them tells the Sand siblings to take the currently suffering Gaara away the area, in which they obey.

"What is happening?!" Sakura demands the sand ninja to answer her as she looks at the retreating figures of Gaara, Temari and Kankuro. The leaf ninja standing in front of Sasuke and Sakura tell her, "Sorry but the Chuunin exams are over, go and pursue Gaara and the rest of them".

Sakura sighs deeply from actual work appearing in front of her, "You don't have to tell me twice!". Sakura slams her hand to the ground, biting her thumb beforehand, while shouting, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (summoning jutsu)!". Sakura summons Shiro, the large wolf, and asks, "Can you help me find Gaara? He is a sand ninja who is running away". Shiro nods his head and runs off to the direction Sakura dashes ahead of Sasuke and runs while using her different water jutsu's to avoid obstacles and destroy and debris in the way of Shiro's path.

* * *

While Shiro runs at an extremely fast pace, Sakura immediately notices the 3 ninja running after her and wanting to kill her. She quickly stops by jumping off Shiro and jumps towards her enemies, causing those ninja to be shocked. The pink haired girl activates Tatsumaki (the tornado-like technique which wraps around her arm) and stabs one of them in their stomach and kicks the other two while doing a spin.

"Hijutsu: Kūkyo (Hidden technique: Emptiness)". Sakura activates her technique, making the one of the Sand Ninja fall to the ground in agony. She looks at the last one; a grin grows on her face as she uses Tatsumaki to stab them.

Sakura groans as she has lost time and hops back onto Shiro and hugs his neck, "Thank you Shiro!". The wolf then dashes off once again.

Sakura spots Temari, Kankuro and Gaara, and jumps in front of them, "You aren't gonna get away hehe...". Kankuro, who is hesitating as he saw how strong she can be, says, "Go ahead, I'll take care of this Sakura. She hasn't seen True Terror yet". Gaara and Temari retreat away from Sakura.

Sakura mocks him by retorting, "Like you have? You were gasping and panting from my technique in our battle". Sakura laughs and points at him, "It would be better if you just stay still and let me stab you; it wouldn't make a difference". Kankuro blushes from embarrassment and gets angry.

"Sakura let me handle Kankuro..." Sakura hears a familiar mysterious voice; it's Shino.

"Mkay. This guy is easy; don't worry." Sakura reassures Shino and dashes away with Shiro.

* * *

Encountering Gaara, Sakura sees that he is clearly in pain. "Shiro go back... I can't risk you getting hurt here". Sakura orders Shiro to go back, which he obeys to. Before Sakura can take a step forward, Gaara states, "Haruno Sakura... I wanted to battle you. You're clearly strong. I thought that fighting Sasuke would make me feel alive, but when I saw how you fight, I knew that I had to kill you instead Sakura". Gaara looks at Sakura with one of his eyes, while the other one is being covered by his hand.

"You have the same dead look and evil residing inside of you..." Gaara chuckles. Suddenly something emerges from his body; a claw-like figure. Sakura's face scrunches up in discomfort.

Sakura stands still while watching Gaara's form unfold in front of her. Sakura closes her eyes, noticing something off from Gaara.

"DO YOU FEAR ME HARUNO SAKURA?!" Gaara jumps towards Sakura, wanting to attack her, but she dodges and activates Tatsumaki once again.

"Not really but I could finally hear what is inside of you". Sakura states simply while plunging Tatsumaki into the sand, "Also, I know something more frightening than this version of you Gaara".

Suddenly, Sakura doesn't anticipate it but, Gaara suddenly transforms even more and becomes even faster. Sakura gets hit in the arm, making her arm bleed.

'I can't use my hidden technique anymore... it's exerting too much strain on my body, especially my ears'. Sakura uses Tatsumaki and attacks Gaara head first and plunges her tornado arm into his side, though she also gets heavily damaged around her arms. Sakura falls down opposite of Gaara and holds her bruised arm, forcing herself to get up.

 _'Hehehe... Submit to your true desires and you can kill him easily...'_ Inner Sakura suddenly erupts in her thoughts. Sakura shakes her head jumps towards another tree branch as Gaara attempts to hurt her again.

"How could I kill someone like Gaara? He's just like me..." Sakura mumbles to herself.

A wave of pain suddenly hurls though Sakura's mind, making her fall and stumble, 'Damn I'm exerting my Jutsu's too much... Tatsumaki takes too much Chakra and using my hidden technique is making my vision really hazy...'.

Expecting to be slammed into the ground by Gaara, Sasuke and Naruto appear and kick him away from Sakura. "Sakura!" Sasuke runs towards Sakura, completely out of character, and looks at her in slight worry.

"...H..Hey attention seeking brat... Shouldn't you be fighting with Gaara instead of babying me?" Sakura manages to cough out as she stumbles. Sasuke manages to catch her before she falls down off the branch.

"Kakashi told me important stuff about being a team..." Sasuke blushes and looks away while settling Sakura on a branch, "We can beat anyone if we work as a team...". Sasuke clearly looks flustered as he says these things and stands protectively in front of Sakura.

Sakura then focuses on Gaara through her ears and thinks, 'What is this overwhelming feeling of sadness... It's so sad... It reminds me of when I was smaller and realised that no one was left to care for me'.

* * *

Sakura's vision is mostly blurry for this entire battle but as her chakra slowly comes back to her, her sight comes back and she can follow the battle completely. She realises that Sasuke protected her and is lying down on a branch not too far away from her.

Sakura feels more pain in her ears as Gaara transforms completely into a sand covered beast, she let's out small whimpers of pain which wakes up Sasuke. He jumps towards her and shakes her shoulders, "Oi Sakura! What is happening?!".

Sakura's breathing becomes even more rapid and she calms down after 3 minutes, "Sorry... Large bursts of chakra... hurts... my ears aren't used to these loud frequencies". Sakura places her thumb and index finger on the bridge of her nose, pinching them.

Sakura and Sasuke continue to watch Naruto battle, both too exhausted to even move (Sasuke is exhausted from using Chidori too much from trying to protect Sakura). Despite this, Sakura forces herself up and jumps closer to watch Naruto's battle.

"He knows how to use the Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu) as well?" Sakura gasps from shock and mumbles, "...Shukaku and Kurama...". Sakura looks in awe as the battle in front of her is absolutely amazing but tense.

* * *

Naruto and Gaara both fall to the floor as he head-butted Gaara and land safely. The two are completely drained from stamina and chakra. Sakura sees the two fall and immediately runs towards the two; her legs burning with exhaustion but she continues to go towards them.

She hears Naruto talking about his love for the village and Gaara looks at him with shock. Sakura steps closer to Naruto, "You did well Naruto...".

She looks at Gaara straight in the eye, "Gaara... I understand what you mean by loneliness and isolation. Though you don't have to resent yourself for it so much. Use that strength to become someone better. Next time we meet, I hope you have become someone amazing." Sakura genuinely smiles at Gaara and he blushes lightly.

Naruto notices this and screams at Gaara, "Hey! Don't blush at my Sakura-chan! She's mine".

Sasuke makes his way down, along with Temari and Kankuro.

"That's enough..." Gaara mumbles to Temari and Kankuro, making them take him away.

As they retreat, Sakura hears him apologise to his siblings, making her smile slightly.

* * *

 _Two Days Later..._

'Death huh?'. Sakura dressed in a simple black dress which fans out at her hips looks into the frame of the Third Hokage. 'It hurts to be in this environment; everyone's frequencies make me depressed. They are all low and gloomy...' Sakura sadly looks at Naruto, who is clearly upset.

Not knowing how to console him Sakura simply holds on to the end of his shirt, making him jump. He calms down after he sees that Sakura continues to look at the framed picture.

'Thanks for trying Sakura...' Naruto thinks happily.

 _End of Chapter 4_


	5. Chapter 5

_The Never-Ending Cycle of Pain:_ _Chapter 5_

* * *

 _(Small Note before Chapter 5 Starts: When thoughts are projected like this (In Italics): 'Hello' - This means that Inner Sakura is talking in Sakura's head. When it is like this:_ 'Hello' - This is Sakura thinking normally in her mind. _This is just a small reminder)_

"Talking", 'Thinking' - Reminders

* * *

'I did not expect something like that to happen today...

Why did it have to happen? I don't understand...

I thought I could trust these people...

Are they my enemies? Who are my enemies?

Can I trust this supposed trust?

Please

I don't want this to be the truth... I don't want to be alone again... I hate this...

I'm laughing. I'm crying. I'm screaming

Tears. Fall. Emptiness.

Isolation?

* * *

Sakura, who is currently walking towards a sweets shop, shoves her hands in her pocket. She remembers the time that Sasuke held her protectively in case she got hurt by Gaara. Her eyes avert towards the side as she mutters to herself in a low breath, "If I didn't know any better, I would have assumed that he felt something for me. Though all he talks about is avenging his clan; I doubt that is the case then". Sakura then quickens her pace, slightly embarrased that she is thinking about romance at all, despite her desire to prioritise power to search for the truth.

' _Haha! Sakura! Don't start thinking about that Uchiha boy! He is your rival! You want to make your clan number 1 right?!',_ Inner Sakura mocks the Cherry Blossom coloured girl, making her swipe her short hair out of her face while she strides down the road.

Though it was not planned, she spots Kakashi near a sweet shop and notices unfamiliar and very strong sounding frequencies inside the building. In slow motion, Sakura notices the way that they cover themselves in their cloaks hiding each section of their body. She turns her head to wave at Kakashi, only to look back at the inside of the shop to see that the two figures, which were emitting powerful frequencies, were gone. Sakura keeps a mental note of these unregistered chakra signals in her mind, though keeps quiet about it.

'I wonder who they were... They seem strong.' Sakura ponders while approaching Kakashi. She greets him in a polite way, "Hello Kakashi-sensei." She stops walking to strike up, unexpectedly, a conversation. Kakashi, who is quite surprised, closes his eye and smiles back (though it is under his mask).

"Did not think you would approach me and say hello Sakura! You here to buy some sweets too?" Kakashi scratches the back of his head, happy that his student is showing some form of warming up towards him. Sakura nods, signalling that she wants to eat something sweet.

Kurenai and Asuma then approach, making Sakura eye at them strangely. She beckons Kakashi to lower himself so that she whisper in his ear, to which he complies to. Sakura places her hand onto Kakashi's ear and utters softly to them, "Are they on a date?". Kakashi giggles in return and ruffles Sakura's hair, causing Sakura to groan in response.

"Little Sakura here is wondering if you two are on a date." Kakashi laughs at the flustered Kurenai. Sakura looks away, pretending not to know what Kakashi is talking about. Kurenai defends herself, stating that the only purpose she is there is to buy sweets for Anko. Asuma asks Kakashi why he is there at the sweets shop.

Kakashi answers, "I'm waiting for Sasuke." Sakura flinches just slightly at the sound of the Uchiha's name, though Kakashi notices this and makes a note of it in his head.

Sakura notices a very familiar frequency, revealing that Sasuke is apporaching while smirking at Kakashi, "It's very different of you to arrive first... Also, Sakura you're here too."

Blushing just slightly from being flustered at his presence, Sakura bows her head at Kakashi, "Well... I'll be going." Before Sakura can race off, she mumbles just loud enough for Sasuke to hear her say, "See you around Sasuke..."

Kakashi gives Sasuke the look of 'is there something going on between you two?', generating feelings of embarrassment. Kakashi, though you are not able to see his mouth, is clearly grinning at Sasuke due to his small blush.

"I don't think anything happened..." Sasuke thinks back to Sakura actually calling him by his name and not some obnoxious nickname, wondering the meaning behind it. Though it is clear that he acknowledges some feeling of either friendship or something more being built within him, Sasuke tries to push the feeling away. Sasuke crosses his arms and recalls the fight with Gaara; the way he held her protectively. Why is so heavily engraved in his mind?

"Kakashi... Sorry could you wait a moment? I want to ask Sakura something." Sasuke dashes off, in Sakura's direction, to find the flustered girl wanting questions to be resolved.

Kakashi grins, thinking in his mind, 'Young love~~'.

* * *

Sakura runs towards her house and stops at the entrance, panting for many reasons.

'Why am I overthinking so many things?! Sasuke does not see anything in me! I don't see anything in him!', Sakura ruffles her own hair, crouching down on the floor while her eyes shake. Sakura screams to herself, 'I hate this feeling...'. Sakura moves her hands to cover her ears instead, frequencies she is unable to process fly into her mind as she is unable to process the information in her confused state.

"SAKURA!", A voice booms out at her, making her whip her head around. She notices Sasuke desperately trying to get her attention, with a worried look plastered on his face. He wipes his sweat off of his forehead using his arm and stretches out his other hand to Sakura, "What's wrong with you?". Despite his harsh tone, his hand is still in front of Sakura's body, offering his help.

Flustered even more at her display of weakness, Sakura quickly composes herself while getting up without Sasuke's help, "Nothing much happened... I just heard stuff..." Sakura states as a lame excuse. Sasuke's eyes twitch slightly at the refusal of his help, trying to quickly ignore this rejection.

After around a minute of silence, Sakura speaks up, "Do you need something Sasuke? You looked pretty desperate to find me, or whatever was your purpose." Sakura inquires and smiles just slightly at him.

Sasuke scratches the back of his head, not knowing how to express himself, "I have some things I'm interested about... Can you answer them?". Sakura nods her head and looks to the left of her and gestures towards her house, "Do you want to come in first?". Sakura realises that this is her first time inviting someone into her house.

'What the hell am I doing? I invited Sasuke. SASUKE! Just a few weeks ago we were glaring at each other...' Sakura beats herself up inside her mind, while opening the door to her house, while also making sure barriers that have been set up don't react to the foreign Uchiha presence.

Sakura leads Sasuke (who is secretly eyeing everything in this mansion) to the guest room. She slides the door open and walks in, gesturing towards the small tea table in the middle of the plain room which is carpeted by tatami mats. Sakura walks out of the room after Sasuke is seated, saying, "I will prepare tea for the both of us."

Sakura quickly dashes off towards the Kitchen, preparing tea for Sasuke and her to enjoy.

* * *

Sasuke sits in silence as he waits for Sakura to return to the guest room with tea. He thinks about the questions he is going to ask Sakura, repeating them in his mind.

Sakura then returns and sits down, holding a tray in her hand with a teapot and two green traditional tea mugs. She lays them on the table and pours tea into the two mugs, handing one to Sasuke. Sakura and Sasuke both take a sip, enjoying the delectable drink. Sakura places her mug down and lays both of her hands on the table, placing one over another.

"So, what did you want to ask Sasuke?" Sakura asks formally while looking at him straight in the eye.

Sasuke takes a deep breath, "Sakura, why do you want to know about the Haruno downfall so much?"

Giggling, Sakura takes another sip of her tea and gives Sasuke a judgemental look, "Why wouldn't I want to discover the truth about the Haruno downfall? It's my clan." Sakura then clears her throat, "That was a silly question of yours Sasuke. It's like me asking you, Why do you want to kill Itachi so much?".

Sasuke flinches at the mention of his name and glares at Sakura, "How do you know who Itachi is? No one was supposed to know about my clan." He eyes Sakura strangely as she continues to give him a mocking and amused look.

"I know many things Sasuke, and the Uchiha Massacre is one of the many things I know," Sakura folds her arms, "Our clans were once rivalled in power. Though that is all in the past."

Sasuke looks into Sakura's eyes; they hold a sad and dark look in them. He speaks up once again, "Would you betray your village to find out the truth?"

Sakura pauses and twiddles her thumbs for a second before answering. She looks back into Sasuke's eyes while smiling, "So you mean running away? I wouldn't do something as low as run from this village. That's a form of weakness don't you think?".

Sasuke, shocked from the honest and true answer from Sakura, contemplates about her answer. He thinks in his mind, 'She's right... Running away and defecting is a weakness. I want to kill Itachi, but running away from my team and this village would just be following the footsteps of him. I don't want to be Itachi'.

Before Sasuke can ask another question, Sakura interrupts him by saying with a fake smile plastered on her face, "You haven't been thinking about running away right? You would just be proving I'm stronger than you."

Sasuke's heart beats rapidly as Sakura struck the exact idea he had. He coughs and blushes slightly from being exposed, "I thought about it... Though I changed my mind quite recently...". He watches Sakura's expression as she moves her right arm to rest on the table, making her head lean on her hand as she smirks at Sasuke.

"If you left, it would be quite lonely here in Konoha..." Sakura accidentally mutters out loud, making her realise her mistake. She flushes slightly along with Sasuke, making them both turn their heads opposite directions. Sakura moves her faze slightly to see that Sasuke is facing away from her, though she can see his ears are red. They both turn back to look at each other and laugh lightly. Sakura smiles genuinely, her face relaxes into a happy expression making Sasuke also joyful at this display.

Sasuke smirks at Sakura playfully and says playfully, "Then I better stay here so you won't be too lonely without me."

Sakura grins while saying, "Shut up". They two continue to laugh, sharing a precious moment together.

The two begin to talk about random topics, some regarding different techniques they both know, while sometimes it moved towards Naruto and his shocking improvement. Smiling, Sakura and Sasuke both enjoy the development between their relationship. If this was their past selves they would have been nagging each other while insulting one another.

"I bet in another universe you're an obsessed fangirl like Ino!" Sasuke jokes at Sakura, making her pout and stick her tongue out at him.

"I would hate that!" Sakura and Sasuke start talking about parallel universes and different possibilities, "I would have to follow you around like a duck!"

They continue for around an hour, then Sakura realises how much time has passed and makes a shocked sound, "Ah! The time! Weren't you supposed to go with Kakashi somewhere?!"

Sasuke shoots up from his sitting position, only to trip on the leg of the table and fall down on his face. Sakura laughs but offers her hand to Sasuke, to which he accepts. She pulls him up and smiles. Sasuke holds onto Sakura's hand for a while before letting go. The two speed walk towards the entrance and exit the Haruno residence.

"I'm going to see Kakashi now. Where are you going to go Sakura?" Sasuke inquires and Sakura places her index finger onto her chin, thinking about what to do.

"I'm going to go check something out; something earlier peaked my interest." Sakura says as they walk together.

The two part ways after walking together for 5 minutes. They both wave goodbye gingerly; the two smile lightly at each other.

* * *

Sakura turns around after Sasuke is out of her vision, making sure no one is around. She then steadies her breathing and closes her eyes.

'Those two with strange chakra... I'm going to find them.' Sakura clears her mind and focuses on her hearing. She opens her mind to hear chakra frequencies. Many calm and normal ones nearby.

"Looking for someone?" A deep and silky voice speaks out to Sakura, making her whip her head around. She meets cold and lonely eyes; the bore into Sakura's skull. Her ears ring from this unknown, but strong, chakra.

'He caught me off guard...' Sakura looks at his eyes, noticing the sharingan activated, 'No...Itachi?!'

Sakura steps back, though Itachi hovers over her. Paralysed with fear, Sakura starts to breath rapidly from the surprise meeting. ' _Oi Sakura! Snap out of it you weakling! Just kill this guy_ ' Inner Sakura screams in frustration, evil lacing their words as they mention murderous intents. Sakura shakes her head and jumps back, getting into a fighting stance.

Itachi laughs lightly, "Interesting girl... You aren't screaming like crazy... No wonder why he is interested in you." Itachi approaches Sakura slowly in silence.

Sakura tries to activate a jutsu, but is stopped with Itachi holding onto her arms and looking straight into her eyes while shaking his head slowly.

"I was saving this for my precious bother, but have it..." Itachi's sharingan moves; Sakura's eyes lose the life in them as she falls to the ground while sweating buckets.

Falling into the abyss of her mind, Sakura's eyes go black while Itachi stares at her unconscious figure.

* * *

 _Inside Sakura's head..._

Opening her eyes, Sakura sees the ceiling of her bedroom, though something is different. Her vision is slightly red and blurry. She feels shorter and weaker. A pungent smell enters her nose. The moon is up...

'No...' Sakura looks at her hands, noticing that they are smaller. Wrapping her arms around herself, Sakura feels heavy and expensive material wrapping her body. Sakura runs to the mirror to see that she is indeed the younger version of herself.

'This kimono...' Sakura starts to hyperventilate as the last time she wore this was on _that certain day_. Falling to the ground, Sakura is unable to regain her posture. She drags herself up, opening the sliding door while leaning against the wall on her front side. Revealing what was outside her room shocks her, many of the servants she has not seen in a while are running around. Sakura's ears ring with many screaming in panic, their wavelengths uneasy and distressed.

"Sakura-sama!" A servant, whom Sakura can not remember, runs up to her and grabs her wrist, "You must come with me! There is an emergency!"

As Sakura gets dragged along, she remembers this day clearly now. The panic. The distress. The strange pungent smell.

Sakura pulls her arm back away from the servant, screaming, "Don't bring me to that room! No! Stop it!"

Trying to run away, the servants around her start to giggle as their eyes go black and mock her figure, "Sakura-sama you must not be stubborn! Come on! We have to bring you here!"

Many servants surround her and push her towards a large door, with the small girl thrashing and trying to struggle out of their grip.

Effortlessly, the servants throw her into a room. There are many blankets covering something over it.

Sakura slaps her hand over her mouth; eyes shaking and tears pouring out of them. The stench of blood makes the urge to puke overwhelms her.

The servants drag one of the covered things towards her and remove the blanket from them. The thing that was uncovered was a body. A very scratched up and injured body to be specific. The scratches cover the entire body, making it almost impossible to recognise whoever this was.

"Sakura-sama! These bodies just arrived suddenly. You must recognise all of them since you are _so_ smart! We need to confirm who is here and who is not." The servant mocks Sakura as they shove the dead body closer to the small girl.

"You can't leave until you finish recognising _all_ of them."

Sakura looks into the large room, which used to hold parties, but now are lined with hundreds of bodies. Sakura vomits and coughs rapidly.

'Please stop it!'.

...

...

...

After identifying all of them Sakura passes out and she faints.

Waking up, Sakura sees that she is in her bed again, the smell of blood still strong as ever.

Lifting the covers off of her, Sakura walks towards the door of her room.

Opening it, "Sakura-sama! You must come with me! There is an emergency!". A servant calls out towards her, holding onto her wrist.

'...I...Is this day just going to repeat itself?...' Sakura gets dragged into the large room, hearing the same words over and over.

* * *

I thought it would stop after a few times

It kept going

One hundred? Two hundred?

I stopped counting how many times it repeated

I tried to forget this night as much as possible

Each body I had to identify

When it got to my parents, it hurt

It hurt

It hurts

It hurts me

* * *

Sakura forces her eyes open, noticing that she isn't in her house. She moves her hands up and down her body, noticing that she is back to her older self. Remembering what she just went through, Sakura finds the nearest bucket, which was near her white bed, and vomits into it. Her tears run down her face. She throws her head into her pillow and screams into it. Thrashing, Sakura starts to rip up her pillow and howls into the empty white room.

"Sakura!" Throwing the door open, Sasuke finds that Sakura is having a panic attack and wrecking her bed. Not knowing what to do, he tries to grab her wrist, only to have her scream and struggle even more.

'Find Kakashi...' Is what Sasuke thought at that moment. Before he could run to find Kakashi, the silver-haired jounin is already present in the hospital room. She rushes towards Sakura's side.

He takes her arms and pins them to the bed, though she still continues to scream. Kakashi looks at Sasuke and orders him to help, "Help me hold her legs."

Sasuke obediently complies and pins her legs after much struggle. The Uchiha knows what probably made her like this, but hopes in his heart it isn't the encounter of his brother that made her like this.

"Ssshhh... Sakura. Look into my eye," Kakashi calmly says to Sakura, making her screams die down slightly as she looks into his one eye, "It's going to be alright."

The traumatised girl replies with a shaky voice and tear stained face, "It's not going to be alright. If he can just make me remember that whole night over and over again without hesitating... I don't think it's going to be alright."

"Take your time Sakura..." Kakashi whispers to her in a caring tone, understanding that she probably fell under a horrible genjutsu.

"He made me remember... That _Uchiha_ made me remember... Itachi" Sakura continues to sob, but stops trying to thrash around. The two let her limbs go, and she throws her arms around Kakashi's waist.

Sasuke looks angrily at his feet at the mention of his despicable brother, though stays near Sakura's side.

* * *

After calming Sakura down, got her to fall asleep like a child. Looking at Sasuke, he motions that they should leave the room so that they wouldn't disturb her.

Leaving the room, Kakashi looks at Sasuke and says, "Did Itachi do anything to you?"

"Surprisingly after deflecting my attacks, he just left and said he had a 'surprise' for me when I come back. I understand what he meant though. He was talking about Sakura. I should have stayed near her." Sasuke grumbles and crosses his arms.

* * *

 _Night approaches..._

Sakura opens her eyes from her slumber. She sits up in silence; her eyes laced with sorrow and dread.

"Why did you come back here..." Sakura moves her dead eyes towards the person in front of her, "Did you want to do it again? Itachi..."

Itachi stands in front of her, alone.

Her gaze slowly moves towards his eyes, noticing that his sharingan is not activated. Sakura lets outa small breath of despair.

"Join Akatsuki..." Itachi states to Sakura.

"Why would I join your group? You made me go through that horrible experience again..." Sakura's eyes stay on his figure.

"Our leader has considered you useful."

"No" Sakura flat out refuses him, only making Itachi chuckle

"And what if I said I have some interesting information about you clan?"

"Speak now Itachi..."

 _End of Chapter 5_

* * *

 _A/N:_ I'm sorry for the lack of communication with you readers, but I'm just afraid of disappointing you with my manner of speech. The chapter is quite short this time for many reasons including school and personal issues. I won't delve into them but I thank you for even reading this chapter and to read this sad author note. Again, I apologise. The next chapter will come; please wait a while.


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